Advent's Rubix confirms intention to float

Harriet Matthews
22 October 2021

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Industrial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service Rubix, a portfolio company of Advent International, has announced its intention to float on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

The company said in a statement issued on 14 October 2021 that it was considering filing for an IPO.

Admission to the LSE is now expected to take place in early November 2021, according to a statement. The company expects to generate proceeds of around EUR 850m from the IPO and is targeting a net debt ratio of 2.0-2.5x its pro forma adjusted EBITDA from ongoing operations for the last 12 months. According to its 2020 financial report, its leverage stood at 2.98x as of 31 December 2020.

Mergermarket reported in October 2019 that Advent was preparing to exit Rubix via an IPO in H1 2020. The company posted EBITDA of GBP 220m-250m at the time and posted 2018 revenues of EUR 2.3bn alongside EBITDA of EUR 196.5m. Rubix was expected to be valued at GBP 2.5bn.

However, the Daily Telegraph reported in March 2020 that the IPO process had been paused due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are acting as joint global coordinators, while BNP Paribas and Jefferies are to act as joint bookrunners. Rothschild is providing financial advice to Rubix.

Advent formed Rubix in 2017 via the merger of two portfolio companies; the GP acquired UK-based Brammer in a GBP 221.5m take-private in 2016 and France-based IPH Group the following year in a EUR 1.25bn SBO from PAI Partners. At the time, the GP was deploying equity via vehicles including its USD 13bn, 2016-vintage Advent International GPE VIII fund. The combined companies were expected to form a group with turnover of EUR 2.1bn and Rubix has made a series of further acquisitions since its formation.

Rubix provides products and services in industrial segments including logistics, food and beverages, metals, glass and industrial engineering. The company posted 2020 revenues of EUR 2.37bn and EBITDA of EUR 202m, versus revenues of EUR 2.4bn and EBITDA of EUR 225m in 2019. Rubix is headquartered in London and has more than 750 sites across 22 countries.

In the first nine months of 2021, private-equity- and venture-backed IPOs in Europe reached USD 25.3bn in value across 41 listings, as reported by Unquote. The same period in 2020 saw just eight listings with an aggregate value of USD 6.3bn, according to data from Dealogic.

However, the market had not been as smooth elsewhere; Brewdog and Hawksmoor paused their IPO plans earlier in October, as reported, with both citing uncertainty in the hospitality sector as the UK recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Click here to access the latest European IPO Pipeline, which offers a list of IPO-related intelligence covered by Mergermarket over the past month.