Swedish Cable Company Com Hem Raises $853 Million in Initial Public Offering.

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BrokerDealer.com/blog update courtesy of extracts from today’s NYT DealBook

LONDON – The Swedish cable company Com Hem Holding said on Tuesday that it raised 5.67 billion Swedish kronor, or about $853 million, in its initial public offering on the Nasdaq OMXStockholm exchange.

Com Hem, which was acquired by the private equity firm BC Partners in 2011, priced its offering at 58 kronor a share, giving it a market capitalization of 11.5 billion kronor. Shares of Com Hem rose 8.8 percent, to 63.10 kronor, in trading in Stockholm on Tuesday morning.

Com Hem is the largest cable company in Sweden, with around 1.8 million connected households. It could receive additional proceeds of up to 567 million kronor if an overallotment of shares in the offering is fully exercised.

BC Partners, which did not sell shares in the I.P.O., remains the company’s largest investor, with a 50 percent stake. It would hold a 47.7 percent stake if the additional allotment were sold.

“With the support of our new shareholders, we are in a strong position to move forward and to grow our business,” Anders Nilsson, the Com Hem chief executive, said.

Com Hem plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt and to give it more financial flexibility.

The I.P.O. comes at a time of consolidation in Europe’s telecommunications industry.

Vodafone of Britain, Telefónica of Spain and other large players have announced acquisitions in the last 18 months as Europe’s largest carriers bolster their offerings by purchasing cable and fixed-line assets to complement their mobile networks.

Com Hem, founded in 1983, also provides broadband and telephone services. It was spun out of Sweden’s former telecommunications monopoly and counts 39 percent of all households in the country as customers.

The company posted net revenue of 4.4 billion Swedish kronor in fiscal year 2013 and employs about 950 people.

The full article can be found at NYT DealBook.

Euronext anticipated its IPO value to be more than $2.4 Billion this year

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BrokerDealer.com/blog update courtesy of extracts from today’s NYT DealBook

Euronext’s initial public offering looks like a tough sell. The firm is seeking a valuation of 1.3 billion euros to 1.8 billion euros when it floats later this month. Anchor investors have a vested interest in backing the issue. But for other buyers, it is a leap of faith.

The IntercontinentalExchange Group is selling down its holding in the unit after inheriting the business through its purchase of NYSE Euronext last year.

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The NYSE Euronext cash markets operations.

Euronext’s initial public offering looks like a tough sell. The firm is seeking a valuation of 1.3 billion euros to 1.8 billion euros when it floats later this month. Anchor investors have a vested interest in backing the issue. But for other buyers, it is a leap of faith.

The IntercontinentalExchange Group is selling down its holding in the unit after inheriting the business through its purchase of NYSE Euronext last year.

Some of the I.P.O. shares have already been allocated. Cornerstone investors, mainly banks, are to buy a third of the shares at a slight discount to the I.P.O. price, in return for a three-year lockup. As users, their involvement makes sense.

Ten percent of the offering is set aside for retail investors, with another 2 percent set aside for other institutions. That may add some needed tension to the process.

Euronext’s pitch is that it will benefit from European economic recovery, a global shift from bonds to stocks, and increased capital markets activity as European banks scale back lending. It also wants to diversify away from plain-vanilla equity trading into derivatives. As a result, the group expects to achieve average annual revenue growth of 5 percent, and margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 45 percent.

Those targets may be more conservative than some peers. But they look a stretch given recent performance.

Revenue fell 11 percent in 2012 and 3 percent in 2013. The London Stock Exchange increased revenue in both years. First-quarter revenue in the current year also fell from a year earlier. Annual Ebitda margins were last above 45 percent in 2011. The forthcoming Financial Transactions Tax, and a possibly secular reduction in trading activity, could restrict any upturn in volumes.

The full article can be found at NYT DealBook.