Bain's Autodis announces intention to float

Greg Gille
17 April 2018

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Autodis Group, a French automotive parts distributor owned by Bain since 2015, has announced its intention to float on Euronext Paris.

Autodis stated it may implement a capital increase in the range of
€350-400m as part of the upcoming IPO, with net leverage of around 2.5-3x.

Unquote previously reported on the company mulling an IPO, hoping for a market cap in the region of €1bn. Back in February, a source familiar with the situation disclosed that Bain and the company were not considering the option of a PE-sponsored secondary buyout, nor a trade sale.

Autodis is a distributor of automotive and heavy-goods-vehicle parts. It serves a network of 4,000 branded and affiliated garages, and 70,000 regular professional customers.

Autodis stated it is aiming to achieve consolidated revenue of more than €1.4bn in 2018, with adjusted EBITDA exceeding €140m. Average total revenues grew at a compound annual growth rate of 11.1% between 2014 and 2017, reaching €1.3bn. EBITDA increased to €131m over the same period. Autodis is aiming for a €2bn turnover by 2022.

Bain entered exclusive negotiations for Autodis in 2015, then owned by TowerBrook Capital Partners and Investcorp. The takeover was thought to be worth around €615m at the time.

This was the fourth private-equity-backed buyout seen by Autodis since inception. In 1999, it was scooped up by Ardian, Butler Capital, Qualium Investissement, Gilde Investment Management and Goldman Sachs for FRF 3.3bn. One year later, the business was backed by Ardian, Butler and new investor BC Partners as it absorbed UK car component distributor Finelist. The bolt-on led to the two assets merging into a €1.7bn group.

Seven months after the add-on, an accounting fraud concerning Finelist led to the company's collapse and to Ardian, Butler, BC and Qualium losing the equity they had initially provided to Autodis. Goldman Sachs, which had backed the company's buyout in 1999 with a mezzanine loan, took over a 50% stake in the business via its private equity arm Goldman Sachs Private Equity (GSPE), while interest held by the other firms was diluted to a combined 10%.

In February 2006, GSPE set up an auction process for Autodis. Emerging as the winning bidder was Investcorp, which acquired a majority stake in an SBO valuing the company at a reported €600-800m. After Autodis breached its covenants in 2008, the company was forced to appoint a court mediator in 2009 and undergo a pre-packaged administration deal. The transaction, the first of its kind in France, placed TowerBrook as the new majority owner with a 62.5% stake, while Investcorp retained a 16% shareholding.