Countrywide backers in £200m partial sale

Ellie Pullen
15 August 2013

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Two backers of listed UK estate agent Countrywide, Oaktree Capital Management and Apollo Management, have sold approximately ТЃ200m of their shares on the LSE.

The two firms sold a hefty portion of their stakes for somewhere between 570-600p per share, according to various media sources. Oaktree's 36.88% stake has now been reduced to 27.59% following a disposal of 20.4 million shares, while Apollo's shareholding has reduced from 17.53% to 10.87% after selling 14.6 million shares to institutional investors.

This means the two private equity houses raised somewhere in the range of £199-210m collectively through the sale of 35 million shares overall. Oaktree raised between £116-122m, while Apollo netted £83-88m.

The sale means that Apollo and Oaktree effectively bypassed the IPO lock-up agreement established when Countrywide floated in March, which does not expire until September. Countrywide's third private equity backer, Alchemy Partners, has not sold any shares in the transaction.

The estate agent group has a market cap of £1.25bn and trades under the ticker CWD on the LSE.

Goldman Sachs International, Jefferies International and Credit Suisse Securities were appointed joint bookrunners for the sale.

According to an LSE notice, Apollo senior partner and Countrywide director Sanjay Patel has resigned with immediate effect following the sale. Patel was appointed to Countrywide's board by Apollo when the firm bought the business in May 2007.

Previous funding
Apollo acquired Countrywide for £1.1bn in a take-private, delisting the company from the LSE, according to unquote" data. In February 2009, Oaktree bought a substantial stake in the company.

Countrywide was then relisted on the LSE in March this year, raising approximately £220m.

Company
Countrywide, a Chelmsford, Essex-based estate agent group, holds a total of 1,300 estate agency and letting offices operating under 46 local high street brands.

The company employs 10,500 staff and recorded turnover of £539.8m in 2012, as well as an EBITDA of £63m.

People
Grenville Turner is the group CEO of Countrywide. Bruce Karsh is the president and CIO of Oaktree, while Sanjay Patel is a senior partner and the head of international private equity at Apollo.