PAI leans towards US listing in dual-track for Refresco

Barbara Pianese, Ryan Gould, Deane McRobie, Charlie Taylor-Kroll and Min Ho
15 October 2021

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PAI Partners is leaning towards a US initial public offering of Refresco, sources familiar with the matter said, setting up Europe's largest independent beverage bottler for a return to the public markets.

Paris-headquartered PAI is close to appointing Rothschild to advise it on options, two of the sources said, with the buyout group seen to prefer a stock market listing over a sale to a strategic player or another private equity firm.

Should it proceed with a listing, Citi and BNP Paribas are among banks likely to land senior underwriting roles after requests for proposals circulated earlier in September, some of the sources said. Both banks worked on the EUR 2.3bn (USD 2.6bn) IPO of retail coffee giant JDE Peet's last May, one of Europe's largest listings in the food and drinks segment in 2020.

Though a flotation of Refresco in Q1 2022 is the base-case scenario, PAI is in the process of testing M&A appetite for the EUR 514m EBITDA-generating business, according to two of the sources. The size of the company is likely to prove too large to be acquired by its peers, Mergermarket reported last month.

Refresco – based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands – helps retailers bottle beverages such as tea and juices from 60 manufacturing sites across Europe and North America. The business, which has grown steadily through bolt-on acquisitions in recent years, is part of a sizeable portfolio of food and consumer-related offerings owned by PAI.

The company agreed to the take-private offer by the PAI-led consortium in October 2017 for a EUR 3.3bn enterprise value, after a short three-year stint on Euronext Amsterdam.

Representatives for PAI, Refresco, Rothschild, Citi and BNP Paribas declined to comment.