Triton exits steel waste recycling company Befesa

Alessia Argentieri
06 June 2019

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Triton has exited its investment in Frankfurt-listed Befesa, which specialises in steel and aluminium waste recycling, after selling its remaining 6,350,174 shares to institutional investors in an accelerated bookbuilding process for €215.9m.

The shares were sold at €34 each in a placement managed by Citigroup and JPMorgan.

The sale ends a six-year holding period for Triton, which bought the company from Spanish recycling corporate Abengoa. During its ownership, the GP supported Befesa's expansion through several bolt-on acquisitions.

In 2016 and 2017, the company completed the sale of its non-core industrial environmental services units, including its branches in Peru, Chile and Colombia, and chemical cleaning businesses Solarca and Séché Environment.

Previous funding
Triton acquired Befesa from Spanish recycling corporate Abengoa in July 2013 for a €1.075bn EV and €850m equity injection. The deal included a vendor note of €48m with a four-year maturity, and a deferred consideration valued at €225m, which would be received as a convertible loan and convert into the economic equivalent of 14.1% of common equity when the GP exits the company.

The GP deployed capital from its Triton Fund IV, a €3.3bn vehicle close in May 2013.

Triton listed Befesa on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in November 2017 at €28 per share, amounting to a market cap of €954m. The GP reaped €415m from the IPO.

The GP started to sell down its shares in the company with the placement of 3 million shares in an accelerated bookbuilding held in March 2018 at €38.50 per share. Subsequently, Triton sold an additional 3 million shares in January 2019 at €36 per share. The GP remained the largest shareholder with 31.9% of the business after the sale.

More recently, Triton sold 4.5 million shares in Befesa to institutional investors in April 2019 at €37.20 per share for a total of €167.4m.

Company
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Luxembourg, Befesa provides environmental services to the steel and aluminium industries across Europe and Asia. It mainly focuses on treatments for steel dust and aluminium salt slag recycling, and has plants in Germany, Spain, Sweden, France, the UK, Turkey and South Korea. The company generated €720m in revenues and €176m in EBITDA in 2018.

People
Triton – Peder Prahl (director).
Befesa – Javier Molina (CEO).