Dutch cableco Ziggo has priced its initial public offering at €18.50 per share, the top end of its €16.50-€18.50 price range, raising €804m (US$1.1bn) for its shareholders.
The Utrecht-based company confirmed in a statement that the IPO –…
Dutch cableco Ziggo has priced its initial public offering at €18.50 per share, the top end of its €16.50-€18.50 price range, raising €804m (US$1.1bn) for its shareholders.
The Utrecht-based company confirmed in a statement that the IPO – Europe’s largest since July 2011 – consisted of 43.48 million shares, equating to a 21.7% stake in the company.
Strong interest from investors prompted the company to boost the number of shares offered from 35 million (a 17.5% stake) on 19 March.
Ziggo also extended a 15% over-allotment option which, if fully exercised, means 25% of the company’s total equity will be sold.
The IPO, on NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam, “was multiple times oversubscribed at the offer price,” the statement said. The offering values the company at about €3.7bn (US$4.9bn).
Commenting on the pricing, Ziggo chief executive Bernard Dijkhuizen said:
“We are very happy to complete our IPO with such strong interest from investors, attracted by our combination of growth, dividends and deleveraging.”
In line with the company’s prospectus, about 11.5% of offered shares were allocated to Netherlands-based retail investors, 0.6% went to Ziggo employees and the remainder to Dutch and international institutional investors.
The sale will see majority private equity owners Warburg Pincus and Cinven – which combined three smaller cablecos to create Ziggo in 2006 – reduce their stakes in the company.
The IPO is set to close, and unconditional trading to begin, on 26 March.
JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint global coordinators for the IPO; Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS as joint bookrunners; ABN AMRO, HSBC, Nomura and Rabobank as joint lead managers; ABN AMRO and Rabobank as joint retail bookrunners; and Societe Generale as co-lead manager.
Ziggo’s IPO pricing comes a day after Swiss market expansion services company DKSH raised SFr1bn (US$1.1bn) from its own listing, marking a positive change for recently-volatile European equity markets.
