BC Partners’ Com Hem raises SEK 5.7bn in IPO

The company sold around 97.8 million shares in the offering, netting SEK 5.67bn (€629.7m) with the option of a further SEK 567m should the overallotment option be exercised in full.

BC did not sell any shares in the offering and remains Com Hem's largest shareholder with a 50% stake in the company, assuming the overallotment option is not exercised. The firm's stake will be reduced to 47.7% if the overallotment option is exercised in full.

The final offer price sits at the mid-point of the previous indicative range of SEK 44-62 per share. The company ended up raising its planned amount, which it had announced earlier this month at around the SEK 5.6bn (€626.6m) mark.

Com Hem started trading today (17 June) on the Stockholm Exchange under the ticker "COMH". JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Nordea acted as joint global coordinators, as well as joint bookrunners alongside Carnegie.

Previous investment
Com Hem was acquired by BC in 2011, with the firm paying around €1.85bn to buy the business from Carlyle and Providence Equity Partners.

The two parties had acquired Com Hem in January 2006 for €1.49bn in a secondary buyout from EQT, which had paid €235m to buy the company back in June 2003, according to unquote" data.

Company
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Stockholm, Com Hem is a provider of broadband, television and telephony services in Sweden. According to the company, around 39% or 1.83 million of Sweden's households are connected to Com Hem.

The company employs 1,050 staff and generated revenues of SEK 4.45bn (€494.1m) in 2013, as well as an underlying EBITDA of SEK 2.2bn (€244.4m).

People
Anders Nilsson is the CEO of Com Hem. Nikos Stathopoulos is a managing partner at BC.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Nordics
• Technology
• Sweden
• BC Partners
• IPO