F1 team eyes IPO finish line
THE BANKERS for Formula One race team Williams will today conclude the bookbuilding process for its initial public offering (IPO).
German lender Baader Bank last night confirmed that it had fully covered the book ready for the listing.
Swiss lender Bank am Bellevue is leading the global bookbuilding process.
The British-based racing team will list on the Frankfurt stock exchange as Williams Grand Prix Holdings on Wednesday this week. It’s share price will be announced tomorrow.
Pricing of the IPO was cut last week to between €25 and €27 a share, reflecting institutional valuations. It had been initially priced at €27 to €29.
The majority of orders have come from the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
Williams is one of the most successful racing teams in the world, with 16 Formula One world championship titles under its belt secured by drivers including Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell.
Sir Frank Williams, who founded the team with Patrick Head in 1977, will remain the majority shareholder following the IPO while Head plans to sell the bulk of his stake.
The sale will see Head net more than £54m as he sells the majority of his stake. His holding in the company will drop from 23.5 per cent to 5.8 per cent.
Sir Frank will sell a portion of his stake for around £14.4m. He will retain a holding of more than £113.3m in the firm.
CLAUDIO STEFFENONI
BANK AM BELLEVUE
CLAUDIO Steffenoni led the Williams Grand Prix listing for Swiss lender Bank am Bellevue as sole global coordinator and book runner.
As head of corporate finance, he was joined by his deputy Dan Dysli, as well as Kalina Scott, Fredrich Dietz and Jan Mörmann, in building appetite for the offering.
Steffenoni has previously worked as head of corporate finance and as head of private equity for KPMG in Switzerland. He has also worked at Bank Vontobel and at UBS.
At KPMG, the Swiss banker advised German cooperative Raiffeisenbanken on its purchase of a minority stake in Vontobel bank. He also worked on the placement of convertible bonds whilst at KPMG.
German lender Baader Bank acted as joint lead manager on the offering and as local bookrunner in Germany.
Former HVB manager Christian Bacherl led the bank’s capital markets team.
Munich-based Baader last year hired about 30 bankers to strengthen its investment banking operations as it looks to grow the volume of corporate work it takes on.