VC-backed Windeln lists in €470m IPO

The offering saw shares priced at the mid-point of the range the company had announced in April, and generated proceeds of €211m.

A total of 11,404,899 shares have been placed, comprising 5,400,000 newly issued ordinary shares from a capital increase and 4,517,304 shares from existing shareholders. The outstanding 1,487,595 shares will be included in the event of the over-allotment option being implemented. This will result in 42% of the shares in Windeln being involved in the IPO.

Windeln previously announced it will use the fresh capital to target acquisitions of complementary businesses as part of its European expansion strategy. The business will launch its Italian language website in the second quarter of 2015, followed by a Polish version.

All existing shareholders are subject to a lock-up period of 180 days on the sale of further shares.

The IPO comes shortly after Windeln acquired Prague-based Feedo, which also operates in Slovakia and Poland.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs International are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the planned IPO. Berenberg and Commerzbank will act as additional joint bookrunners.

Previous funding
DN Capital is the largest shareholder in the company, with a stake of almost 25%. The GP first invested in the company in September 2010 alongside High-Tech Gründerfonds, which exited its investment in February 2013 as part of a €15m series-C funding round.

Acton Capital Partners holds a stake of almost 20%, having joined the list of investors in May 2011 as part of a series-B round. Goldman Sachs acquired around 13% of the company in January this year, with its Merchant Banking Division participating in a €45m round alongside Deutsche Bank, which took an 11% stake.

MCI Private Ventures and 360 Capital also hold 8.8% and 4.3% stakes, respectively.

Similar amounts are held by the two managing directors and founders of Windeln via their holding companies Gut Vermögensverwaltung and ABrand Management.

Company
Founded by Konstantin Urban and Alexander Brand in 2010, windeln.de is a Munich-based online retailer selling baby and children's products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The business also exports baby and toddler products to customers in China.

The company has 300 employees and saw revenues of €101m in 2014, with €44m coming from the DACH market and €55.5m from China. It posted an EBITDA of €7.3m for the year.

People
Alexander Brand and Konstantin Urban are co-founders of Windeln.

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• Topics
• Exits
• DACH
• Consumer
• Germany
• DN Capital
• High-Tech Gründerfonds
• Deutsche Bank
• Goldman Sachs
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• Unq2015June