FRANCE - Wendel consortium prepares Legrand's EUR 1.8bn IPO

Fay
02 March 2006

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Wendel Investissement is planning Legrand’s IPO, which has been valued at around EUR 1.8bn. Owing to the current good performances of the French financial markets, coupled with the fact that Legrand’s revenues are forecast to exceed EUR 3bn this year, it is thought that the listing will take place in April 2006. BNP Paribas, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have been mandated to run the listing, which has been rumoured to value Legrand at around EUR 9bn or more. Following the IPO, minority shareholders Goldman Sachs, WestLB and Montagu Private Equity will exit their stakes. Wendel and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) will reduce their stakes to retain around 20-30% each.

The company has not been quoted since 2003, when it was valued at around EUR 3.7bn. The Wendel consortium acquired its 98.04% interest in Legrand from Schneider Electric a deal worth EUR 4.331bn in December 2002. Wendel Investissement and KKR both invested EUR 658.5m, WestLB provided EUR 200m, HSBC Private Equity (now Montagu Private Equity) invested EUR 115m, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners provided EUR 100m. The Verspieren and Decoster families, the founders of Legrand, also invested EUR 29m. A EUR 150m vendor loan was provided by Schneider Electric. The EUR 2.43bn external debt package comprised EUR 1.82bn of senior debt and EUR 600m of mezzanine financing.

The Legrand transaction represented the largest ever buyout in France in 2002, a year that also saw the completion of the second, third, and fourth largest buyouts in French history. TéléDiffusion de France was also completed in December 2002 for an estimated EUR 1.85bn, PAI acquired Elis in July for EUR 1.5bn, and the acquisition by Cinven, Apax Partners & Cie France, and Carlyle Group of the healthcare and business publications division of Vivendi Universal Publishing for EUR 1.2bn occurred in April of the same year.