Spanish certification company Applus is to list on Spain's main stock exchanges seven years after being purchased by US private equity group Carlyle, reflecting growing investor confidence in the southern European economy.
Applus plans to raise €300m by selling shares, while Carlyle is also looking to dispose of existing shares, the Barcelona-based company said on Wednesday. It is closely following eDreams Odigeo, the online travel agent owned by Permira, in announcing its intention to float in Spain. They will be the first listings since the ill-fated offering, three years ago, of Bankia, the sprawling financial group that had to be rescued by the Spanish government barely a year after going public.
If successful, the initial public offerings would confirm the sharp turnround in investor perceptions of Spain since the summer of 2012, when the country's long-running economic problems and housing market collapse sparked a full-blown banking crisis. Government and corporate bonds as well as the stock market have bounced back since then, fuelled by growing investor optimism that the Spanish economy is primed for better than expected growth this year and that the private sector has taken crucial steps to restore export competitiveness.
Carlyle has opted to proceed with a partial sale of its stake through a listing of Applus despite receiving an offer for the whole company from BC Partners, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
The decision shows how difficult it is for private equity bidders to match public markets' valuations, which are reaching all-time highs.
BC's bid valued the company at about €2bn including debt, less than the €2.3bn valuation Carlyle expected in a listing. The Washington-based asset manager purchased Applus in 2007, at the height of the buyout boom, for about €1.5bn.
"We see exciting opportunities across our markets for further growth and are very well placed to continue to benefit from favourable structural growth trends as well as industry consolidation," said Fernando Basabe, chief executive of Applus.
Applus, with €1.6bn in revenues and €200m in operating profit before depreciation and amortisation, is joining the long list of European private equity-backed companies seeking to tap buoyant stock markets. Buyout fund managers, which have had a hard time exiting investments following the financial crisis, are rushing to sell their stakes and return cash to their investors.
Separately, Carlyle, which is raising a European buyout fund, said it entered exclusive talks to sell its stake in French boiler manufacturer Sermeta to the company's founder Joseph Le Mer.
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