Rothschild and Hayward’s Vallares to seek £1bn IPO
Financier Nat Rothschild and former BP chief executive Tony Hayward intend to raise £1bn through a blockbuster IPO in London of their vehicle Vallares.
The IPO is planned for this month to raise capital to fund a major acquisition in the resources or oil and gas sector, its keenly-awaited intention to float says.
Vallares will invest in the same style as Vallar, Rothschild’s previous venture, which raised more than £700m in an IPO last year and has since bought Indonesian coal assets from the Bakrie family.
The Vallares placing will be priced at £10 per share and the order book is expected to close in less than two weeks, on 20 June.
“The company intends to target a major company, business or asset with an aggregate enterprise value of between £3bn and £8bn, although an opportunity with a smaller or larger enterprise value may be considered,” the statement said.
“The Company aims to achieve this through identifying and acquiring interests in companies, businesses or assets where the existing owners are attracted to the Vallares proposition, namely the opportunity to hold an ownership interest in a London listed company with a high quality board and the cash, access to capital and capability to unlock the value of their assets.”
Vallares will invest in “emerging and under-developed” markets, it said, in companies that own valuable resource assets but do not have the capital to fully exploit them.
The venture marks a return to market for Hayward, who left BP last year following its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Hayward also now sits on the board of commodities giant Glencore, which listed in London last month.
Hayward and Rothschild have together committed £100m of capital to the company and its group, including £80m to subscribe for ordinary shares in the placing, the document said.