Austrian firm lists despite lower price
AUSTRIAN aluminium group AMAG has raised €366m (£320m) in the first Vienna listing since October 2007.
The manufacturer sold at €19 per share, at the bottom end of its anticipated price of between €19 and €24.
The range was narrowed earlier this week to between €19 and €21, amid tough market conditions for initial public offerings (IPO).
Market volatility worldwide has already derailed several other planned floats this year.
AMAG placed around 19.3m shares, including 5.3m new shares with private domestic investors and international institutional investors.
The IPO lets its main private equity backer, CP Group 3, reduce its stake to 34.5 per cent before exercise of an over allotment option.
A joint venture between One Equity Partners and Constantia Packaging, CP Group 3 had originally hoped to raise up to €535m.
Yet the IPO will still hand the firm a €100m capital injection to expand its range of products and geographical reach.
MEET THE ADVISERS
LARS STIEWE
BNP PARIBAS
LARS Stiewe led the advisory for BNP Paribas as the joint global coordinator and bookrunner on the AMAG initial public offering (IPO).
Based in London, the managing director is head of equity capital markets for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
He has over 16 years of experience in corporate finance, having worked for BNP Paribas for the past 10 years.
Stiewe played a key role in raising almost €5bn (£4.4bn)?capital for German car manufacturer Porsche, as well as deals for tyre maker Continental and Heidelberg Cement.
Before joining BNP Paribas he worked for Dresdner Kleinwort.
He was joined on the AMAG deal by Dimitri Boulanger, a metals and mining specialist for the bank.
Boulanger previously advised on the attempted merger between mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, and acted as adviser to Arcelor in its deal with Mittal Steel in 2006 to create the world’s largest steel producer. Based in London, he joined BNP Paribas in 2004 from HSBC, where he worked in Paris for four years. He previously worked for NatWest Markets in London.
Berthold Muller, head of corporate finance for BNP Paribas in Germany, worked on the deal in the bank’s Frankfurt office.
JP Morgan joined the French bank as joint global coordinator and bookrunner. Raiffeisen Centrobank and UniCredit Bank Austria were co-lead managers on the deal.