CVC sells down Ahlsell stake

The partial divestment comes less than a year after the company listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm, and will go through a placing to institutional investors.

Despite pricing at the lower end of the indicative range, Ahlsell was one of the largest IPOs in Stockholm since national Swedish telecoms firm Telia was floated with a market cap of €9bn in 2000.

CVC, through the Keravel holding, will retain a 25.1% stake in the company and will be subject to a 90-day lock-up period. At the time of the IPO, CVC remained the largest single shareholder in Ahlsell, holding around 60.4% of the total shares.

The transaction valued shares in the business at SEK 51.50 apiece, at a 5% discount compared to the previous day's closing price of SEK 54.25 per share. This would imply a total transaction volume of around SEK 3.4bn, with Keravel divesting 66 million shares. It is the second block trade in Ahlsell since May 2017, when CVC sold a 17.2% stake.

At the time of the company's flotation, Ahlsell had set a share price range of SEK 45-58, but was introduced at SEK 46 apiece, for a market cap of SEK 20bn.

Previous funding
The IPO in October 2016 concluded nearly two decades of private equity ownership for Ahlsell. CVC acquired Ahlsell in February 2012 in a €1.8bn SBO from Cinven and Goldman Sachs, which in turn had bought it from Nordic Capital for around €1.28bn in 2006. Nordic Capital acquired Ahlsell in 1999 as part of the carve-out of four subsidiaries of Swedish industrial conglomerate Trelleborg, in what was considered to be the largest ever Swedish private equity transaction at the time.

Company
Founded in 1877, Ahlsell is a distributor of plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning supplies, as well as tools. It has outlets across the Nordic region, Estonia, Poland and Russia. In the six months to 30 June 2017, Ahlsell posted an adjusted EBITA of SEK 5.7bn. Ahlsell currently has a SEK 23.67bn market cap.

People
Ahlsell – Johan Nilsson (CEO).

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• Topics
• Exits
• Nordics
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• Sell-down
• CVC Capital Partners