Hotelbeds owner HBX valued at $2.9 billion in one of the first IPOs of 2025

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish travel tech company HBX Group, owner of the Hotelbeds brand, has priced its initial public offer at 11.5 euros ($11.85) a share, for a total valuation of up to 2.84 billion euros ($2.93 billion) in one of the year's first euro zone IPOs.

After a successful bookbuilding process that ended on Monday, HBX Group raised 725 million euros, which it said would be used to reduce debt.

An over-allotment option of up to 15% of the initial offer, worth 112 million euros, can be exercised until March 14, the company said in a filing to the stock market supervisor CNMV.

Taking into account the over-allotment and a secondary sale of shares by existing shareholders, the whole operation would be worth about 860 million euros.

The final price is at the mid-point of a previously set range between 10.50 euros and 12.50 euros.

The company would be the first to launch a euro zone IPO this year, after a slight recovery in issuance last year.

It comes at a time when analysts have been turning bullish on European equities and stock valuations have picked up. The Madrid blue-chip index closed on Thursday at its highest in more than 16 years.

HBX Group expects to start trading on the Spanish stock market on February 13.

The company has said the IPO was designed to accelerate its growth strategy and strengthen its financial position.

The company booked a core profit of 363 million euros in 2024 on revenue of 693 million.

HBX's shareholders include private equity firms Cinven and EQT, as well as Canada's CPP Investments.

Cinven and CPP Investments would reduce their respective stakes to between 26.2% and 27.9%, while EQT would cut its stake to between 11.3% and 11.9%.

($1=0.9704 euros)

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip, Inti Landauro and Tomas Cobos; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)