Permira-backed Allegro lists with market cap of €9.8bn

The float comprises the issuance of 23,255,814 new sale shares to raise gross proceeds of approximately PLN 1bn (€223m) and the sale of 190,293,225 existing shares, worth around PLN 7bn (€1.6bn), by the existing shareholders.

Some existing shareholders – Cidian, Permira VI and Mepinan – have granted Morgan Stanley an overallotment option to purchase up to 15% of the total number of shares to amount to PLN 10.6bn (€2.4bn), should the option be exercised.

Allegro intends to use the proceeds, alongside a new credit facility, to repay its existing debt and to improve its net leverage. The company first heard pitches for the IPO in June 2020, with a valuation of 20x EBITDA expected at the time, according to Unquote sister publication Mergermarket.

Goldman Sachs International and Morgan Stanley acted as global coordinators and joint bookrunners. Barclays Bank, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets and Dom Maklerski Banku Handlowego acted as joint bookrunners, while Santander Bank Polska and BM PKO BP acted as joint bookrunners and co-offering agents in Poland in connection with the offer to retail investors. Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spółka Akcyjna, Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, Erste Group Bank, Pekao Investment Banking and Raiffeisen Centrobank acted as co-lead managers. Lazard acted as corporate finance adviser to Allegro.

Previous funding
Mid Europa Partners, Permira and Cinven acquired Allegro.eu in October 2016 from South Africa-based Naspers in a deal valued at $3.253bn. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also provided €24m in equity to back the deal.

According to Unquote sister publication Debtwire, debt financing of $1.2bn was provided to support the deal by Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale, alongside Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, ING, HSBC, Bank of China, Bank of Tokyo, Alior, MBank, Erste Group, Raiffeisen, JP Morgan, PZU, EBRD and UniCredit. The consortium also provided a rolling credit facility of $81m.

Permira invested in Allegro via Permira VI, which held a final close in January 2017 on €7.5bn. The fund was 91% deployed as of March 2020, according to Unquote Data. At the time of the investment in Allegro, Cinven was deploying equity via Cinven VI, which held a final close in June 2016 on €7bn. The fund was 75% deployed as of March 2020.

Company
Allegro serves 12,300,000 active buyers, according to a statement, with 117,000 merchants selling goods on its online platform. The company has seen revenue growth of 50% in H1 2020, alongside adjusted EBITDA growth of 20% in 2019 versus growth of 28% in H1 2020, during which it reported an EBITDA margin of 45%. The firm's gross merchandise value accounts for 3% of the total retail market in Poland, it said in a statement, comprising $7.1bn for the 12 months to 30 June 2020.

Based in Poznań, the company was launched in 1999.

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

• Topics
• Exits
• CEE
• Consumer
• Poland
• Permira
• Mid Europa Partners
• Cinven
• IPO
• Barclays
• Citigroup
• UniCredit
• BNP Paribas
• Deutsche Bank
• Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank