PE-backed Volotea eyeing IPO in February

José Rojo
21 January 2016

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Volotea, a Spanish low-cost airline backed by US GP CCMP Capital and local investors Corpfin and Axis since its foundation in 2012, is aiming to list on the Madrid stock exchange in February.

An unquote" source confirmed preparations are underway at Volotea to list around February; the process is being overseen by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. At this point, no further information has been disclosed around the amount of shares to be put up for sale and a potential listing price.

According to the same source, the company's financial backers plan to partially sell their stakes during the flotation.

Should it go forward next month, the IPO would come exactly four years after CCMP, Corpfin and Axis came together to support Volotea's inception.

In February 2012, the trio provided a joint €50m to the company's founders – in return, CCMP secured a 49% stake, while Spanish firms Corpfin and Axis received a combined 25% and founders Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros retained a 26% interest.

In November 2013, the three shareholders injected a fresh €10.5m into Volotea as the airline expanded its network with new destinations. According to unquote" data, this second round did not feature any changes in the company's shareholding structure.

With headquarters in Barcelona, Volotea targets small and medium-sized European cities left out by the mainstream routes operated by larger airlines. Its fleet of Boeing 717s serve 71 European destinations, with a focus on southern countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia.

Its co-founders Muñoz and Ros, respectively CEO and managing director, are the executives who set up low-cost airline Vueling in 2004. Their first airline startup project was also private-equity-backed: Apax Partners financed Vueling's creation with an initial €15m investment and then provided an additional €11.1m during a second round in April 2006.

Volotea's predecessor also opted to go public but chose to do so in 2006, a mere two years before the Spanish stock market collapsed along with the rest of the economy, brought down by a real estate crash.

Along with all of its listed peers, Vueling was heavily affected by the crash: its share price plummeted from €34.25 when floating in 2006 to €9.15 when it was taken private in 2013, a 73% drop.