CVC-backed Sunrise lists in €3.06bn IPO

Harriet Bailey
06 February 2015

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CVC’s Sunrise Communications has listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange with a market capitalisation of €3.06bn.

The company initially announced its intention to float in mid-January. Two weeks later, it set a price range of between CHF 58–78 per share. At CHF 68, the listing will generate primary proceeds of approximately CHF 1.36bn, reducing the company's debt burden to 2.7x EBITDA.

Sunrise's base offering consists of 20 million ordinary shares, while CVC agreed to sell 9.3 million shares – an increase from the initial 4.3 million the private equity house originally agreed to sell. According to the company, the IPO was significantly oversubscribed.

In total, the IPO will result in a free float of 65% for Sunrise. A greenshoe option of up to 4.1 million shares, or 14% of the base offering, has also been made available. If the over-allotment option is fully exercised, 75% of Sunrise shares will be listed. The option can be exercised until 8 March 2015.

CVC acquired Sunrise in September 2010 from Danish telephone company TDC for €3.3bn. Deutsche Bank and UBS provided a CHF 2.3bn senior debt package to finance the transaction, while CVC supplied the remaining €1bn in equity from its CVC European Equity Partners V Fund, according to unquote" data.

Both CVC and the board of directors are committed to a six-month lock-up period following the IPO, while Sunrise has signed up to a 12-month lock-up period.

Sunrise stated it will pay shareholders a dividend of at least CHF 135m in 2016 and plans to return excess cash to shareholders once it reaches its target capital structure of 2.5x net debt to EBITDA.

Deutsche Bank and UBS are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO, with Morgan Stanley and Berenberg acting as additional joint bookrunners. Bank Vontobel is co-lead manager, while Lilja & Co will provide corporate finance advice to CVC and Sunrise.

Company
Telecommunications operator Sunrise generated revenues of CHF 2bn and EBITDA of CHF 621m for the twelve months to 30 September 2014. It has 3.3 million customers in Switzerland, providing mobile, landline voice and internet, and IPTV services. It claims to have a 27% share of the mobile market and a 9% share of fixed broadband. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Zurich.

People
Libor Voncina is CEO of Sunrise.