Friday, September 17, 2021

Public European Private Equity: "Antin seeks €4.1B valuation in Paris IPO"

Yeah, yeah. Public Private Equity sounds stupid but it's a thing. and depending on the managers it can be profitable for portfolio investors. We're flagging this not so much for Antin [we don't care for IPOs, SPACs, direct listings etc.] but for the fact it is apparently that time in the cycle for new funds.

And the extra special attraction is: if the managers are lousy you can short the fund, something that gets complicated-to-impossible* with their Private Private Equity brethren.

From PitchBook, September

Antin Infrastructure Partners is set to join a growing club of public European private equity firms, as it launches its IPO on Euronext Paris with a view to raising at least €550 million (about $649 million).

Antin, which is set to start trading on Sept. 24, has set its indicative price range between €20 and €24 per share and would raise around €350 million at the low end of its range by issuing up to 17.5 million new shares. The remainder will come from existing share sales. The listing could give the Paris-based firm a valuation of up to €4.13 billion.

The offering comes just two months after UK mid-market PE investor Bridgepoint Advisers listed on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of £2.9 billion (about $4 billion). Sweden's EQT and France's Tikehau Capital have also gone public in recent years, and LVMH-backed L Catterton is reportedly exploring an IPO, as more firms seek to tap into retail investor appetite for PE stocks....

....MUCH MORE

*The best you can do is attempt to pick off the investee's, usually by way of dirty hedges and dirty pair trades and messing with debt if any, usually bank credit, sometimes trade credit; very messy and tough to execute.