Cinven and Warburg Pincus in final exit from Ziggo

Cinven and Warburg Pincus exited Ziggo following the launch of an accelerated book building offer for 27 million shares with an upsizing of 7 million additional shares, which generated gross proceeds of €658m this morning. The GPs generated a total of €1.7bn each from the investment, translating to a 2.8x money multiple return for both Cinven and Warburg Pincus's funds.

The two GPs' combined ownership prior to the sale today represented 17.1% of Ziggo's ordinary share capital. They had divested their 54% combined stake post-IPO simultaneously in four tranches.

Ziggo was floated at €21.20 per share in March 2012, raising €922m for the company. The share price at the time of flotation was already higher than its initial price range of €16.50-18.50, reaching a trading price of €23.50 per share at the end of July.

In October 2012 the GPs upped their offering from 25 million shares to 37 million by exercising their over-allotment option of a further three million shares due to strong investor demand. They proceeded to exercise the further allotment at €24.75 per share in November of the same year.

Cable operator Ziggo was established after portfolio companies Multikabel, Casema and Essent Kabelcom merged in June 2008. 

Ziggo invested a total of €1bn to upgrade the network and introduce new digital TV, high-speed broadband and bundled product offerings to customers. The company also underwent two bond offerings in 2010 totaling nearly €2bn.

The business had net sales of €1.5bn in 2012 with a net income of €193m and a cost of net financial debt of €260m. Its shares traded at €25.915 on Friday 26 April, down from its closing price of €27.845 on the previous day.

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• Topics
• Benelux
• Exits
• Technology
• Partial sale
• Netherlands
• Warburg Pincus
• Cinven