France’s Antin Infrastructure Sets IPO Price Range at 20-24 Euros

France’s Antin Infrastructure sets IPO price range at 20-24 euros

PARIS (Reuters) -French investment company Antin Infrastructure Partners will float its shares at a price range between 20 and 24 euros in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), the company said on Wednesday.

The IPO involves a capital increase of about 350 million euros ($416 million) through the issuance of new shares as well as a limited sale of around 200 million euros worth of existing shares by the company’s co-founders.

Antin said the company would be worth between 3.5-4.1 billion euros after the IPO.

Its IPO comes after rival private equity firm Bridgepoint went public in July in a deal that saw its value rise by more than a fifth on its London stock market debut.

Antin’s IPO offer is due to start on Sept 15, and shares are expected to start trading on Sept 24.

A bookrunner for the offering said books were covered with indicated demand exceeding the full deal size.

The deal will help Antin, one of the world’s leading infrastructure investment firms with approximately 20 billion euros in assets under management, to accelerate growth and diversify its investment portfolio while also strengthening its brand.

Antin said on Sept. 3 that it expected 2021 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to reach about 92 million euros and an EBITDA margin of about 60%, excluding IPO transaction costs.

It expected net income of around 60 million euros after approximately 16 million of pre-tax non-recurring IPO transaction costs.

Other buyout funds including L Catterton – the private equity firm backed by French billionaire Bernard Arnault and luxury goods empire Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy – are also considering tapping public markets. They are planning to do so at a time when private equity buyouts have hit record volumes with activity rising 152% in the first six months of the year to $512 billion, representing 18% of global M&A volumes.

J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley Europe are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. BNP Paribas, Bank of America Securities Europe and Citigroup are acting as joint bookrunners.

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)