STJ advises Nordic Capital on its SEK 4.72bn (US$330m) placement of Intrum AB shares
2021
We are pleased to report that STJ Advisors advised Nordic Capital on its first placement of shares in Intrum AB (“Intrum”), the European industry-leading provider of Credit Management Services with a presence in 24 markets in Europe, via an accelerated bookbuilt offering raising SEK2.72bn (c. $330m) in proceeds.
This transaction represents our first mandate acting as advisors to Nordic Capital for a placement of Intrum shares and our fifth mandate for Nordic Capital following our advice on the $1.22bn IPO of Nordnet in November 2020 and the three follow-on placements in Munters raising $434m in proceeds through 2019 and 2020.
The transaction raised gross proceeds of c. SEK2.72bn (c. $330m), via the sale of 10 million ordinary shares, representing c. 8.2% of the company’s ordinary share capital and 40 days’ trading volume. Nordic Capital’s stake in Intrum following the transaction will be c. 39%.
The placement comes following a c. 2-year engagement with Nordic Capital on its investment in Intrum, where STJ had been engaged to advise on positioning and monetisation options.
The STJ Strategic Research Advisory team also continues to work closely with Management to help refine the equity story and its positioning as well as the investor targeting and engagement strategy.
More specifically, STJ advised the Company through a change in the Senior Management Team in October 2020, to actively promote Intrum’s highly attractive value compounding proposition and the Quality dynamics it offers investors, alongside its growth story.
At that time, Intrum was perceived by the market to be a potential “COVID-loser”, with shares bottoming at SEK 98.3 on 23rd March 2020. Since that date, they have appreciated by more than 195% to the current price levels of SEK290-300 prior to the placement, outperforming the broader European Equity Index by over 130%.
Accounts were wall-crossed with discount indications of 5-8%, and the final placement price of SEK272 representing a discount of 6.7% to the market closing price, with the discount reflecting investor feedback that the share had appreciated significantly since early April.
The deal was launched at market close with a books covered through pre-launch indications message and the official books covered message was issued c. 30 minutes later. The final book consisted of c. 80 lines and was more than 3x oversubscribed at the offer price. The book was strongly anchored with the highest quality blue-chip local investors who showed strong support for Intrum. The top 10 lines received c. 50% of the deal. The shares continue to trade in a narrow band around the placement price.
STJ provided critical advice around bank selection, fees, timing, sizing and ultimate pricing tactics to achieve an optimal first transaction (in terms of both size and price) in Intrum for Nordic Capital.
(share price rebased to 100 – 23rd March 2020 to placement date)
