Private equity backers sell Rexel stake for €640m

Private equity-backed holding Ray Investment sold 40 million Rexel shares, representing approximately 14.7% of the company's share capital, by way of an accelerated book building to institutional investors.

Eurazeo reaped €225m from the sale. The firm's indirect interest in Rexel will be reduced from 17.9% to 12.7%.

A Clayton Dubilier & Rice-led consortium backed the €1.9bn buyout of PPR's shares in Rexel in 2005. CDR took a 36.5% equity stake in newco Ray Investment. It was joined by Eurazeo and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, which agreed to take a 35.6% and a 25.7% equity stake, respectively.

Rexel was floated in 2007, in an IPO that valued the business at €4.2bn. Ray Investment had already divested part of its stake in Rexel in March 2012.

Company
Rexel supplies electrical equipment and services to professionals within the manufacturing, residential and commercial sectors. It operates in 37 countries through a network of approximately 2,100 distributors and has 28,000 employees.

Rexel posted a €12.7bn turnover in 2011.

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• Topics
• France
• Exits
• Industrials
• France
• Eurazeo
• Partial sale