PE-backed Ontex preparing return to stock market

Ellie Pullen
01 May 2014

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TPG Capital- and GS Capital Partners-backed Ontex, a Belgian producer of baby and feminine care products, is preparing a €500m Brussels Stock Exchange flotation, according to Belgian reports.

Belgian business daily De Tijd reported that the company's two backers will be looking to sell around half of their shareholdings in the listing. According to the report, Ontex will look to raise around €500m.

GS Capital declined to comment, while TPG was not immediately available for comment.

According to De Tijd, the firms have been running a dual-track process for the sale of Ontex. The Belgian daily reported that there have been talks with Canadian group Domtar regarding an acquisition, but no sale materialised and therefore an IPO is back on the cards.

Ontex also recently made changes to its board of directors. In November, chairman Adrian Bellamy retired and was replaced by Paul Walsh, the previous CEO of Diageo and most recently adviser to Diageo's chairman and new CEO.

If plans to list in Brussels go ahead, it will mark the second time that the Belgian company has gone public. In January 2003, Candover took the business private for slightly more than €1bn, €430m of which was provided as equity, €510m as senior debt and a further €165m from a syndicate of mezzanine lenders.

The transaction comprised the acquisition of 6.8 million shares, representing a stake of 77.96% in the company, according to unquote" data. The fund then launched a takeover bid to delist Ontex from the Brussels exchange.

The deal marked the largest ever buyout in Belgium at the time, though this was then overtaken by GS Capital and TPG's secondary buyout of the business in July 2010 for €1.2bn.

The two firms each contributed €265m, with the balance of €670m provided as debt by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, according to unquote" data. An auction process for the sale of Ontex commenced in 2009 and attracted several GPs, though GS Capital's initial bid fell through when its original partner backed out of the potential deal.

Ontex was founded in 1979. The business is headquartered in Zele with 12 manufacturing facilities across eight countries, and sales offices in 11 countries.

Ontex produces disposable hygiene products for the private label sector such as nappies, baby wipes and feminine care products.

The business employs 4,250 staff. It recorded revenues of €1.49bn in 2013 - a 14% year-on-year increase - as well as an EBITDA of €175m with a margin of 11.7%. The company's net debt as of December 2013 stood at €849.3m.

Charles Bouaziz is the CEO of Ontex.