Swedish cableco Com Hem hopes to raise around SKr5.5bn (US$833m) from an IPO on the NASDAQ OMS Stockholm exchange to cut debt and add financial flexibility.
The group said it will sell new ordinary shares and potentially existing stock held by its…
Swedish cableco Com Hem hopes to raise around SKr5.5bn (US$833m) from an IPO on the NASDAQ OMS Stockholm exchange to cut debt and add financial flexibility.
The group said it will sell new ordinary shares and potentially existing stock held by its private equity owner BC Partners.
As previously reported, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Nordea are joint global coordinators with Rothschild acting as financial adviser. Carnegie is also a joint bookrunner.
Nikos Stathopoulos, managing partner at BC Partners, said: “Becoming a public company is a natural next step for Com Hem as it will broaden its shareholder base, provide financial flexibility by reducing leverage and enhance the company’s growth prospects.
“We will continue to support Com Hem, its strong management team and staff and we welcome new shareholders to take part in the future development of Com Hem.”
Proceeds will go towards refinancing senior credit facilities to achieve around 4.15x net debt / underlying EBITDA as of 30 June 2014, with a medium term target of between 3.5x and 4.0x. This will be done through the full redemption of senior PIK notes and repaying up to 35% of its outstanding 2019 senior notes.
Com Hem is the biggest cable operator in Sweden with around 1.83m households in the country, or around 39%.
BC Partners bought the group in 2011 from fellow PE firms Carlyle and Providence for €1.7bn (US$2.3bn), and reports suggest the IPO could value it at roughly US$3bn.
The cableco posted SKr545m (US$83m) in underlying EBITDA and SKr1.12bn (US$170m) in net sales for Q1 2014, which was roughly flat compared with the corresponding period last year.
