STJ advises Rhône Capital on its €356m placement of Fluidra SA shares
2021
We are pleased to report that STJ Advisors, in cooperation with AZ Capital, advised Rhône Capital (“Rhône”) on its placement of shares in Fluidra SA (“Fluidra”), a leading global manufacturer and distributor of equipment for swimming pools, via an accelerated bookbuilt offering. This transaction represents our fourth consecutive mandate to act as advisors to Rhône in a placement of Fluidra shares after the €300m ABB executed in May 2021, the €425m ABB executed in January 2021, and the €200m ABB executed in November 2020.
The transaction raised gross proceeds of €356m via the sale of 10 million ordinary shares, representing c.5.1% of the company’s ordinary share capital and 24 days’ trading volume. Rhône’s stake in Fluidra following the transaction will be c.11.5%.
Accounts were wall-crossed with discount indications of under 4%, with final placement price of €35.55 representing a tight discount of 3.9% to the market closing price, compared to a market average discount of 5.9% for European Secondary ABBs in 2021. The tight discount is a 1.1% improvement on the 5% discount achieved in Rhône’s previous placement in May 2021.
The strong previous 3 placements with high allocation to quality Long Only accounts created the platform for a further 18% share price increase vs. the offer price in the May trade.
The book consisted of c.60 lines, was c.3.6x oversubscribed at the offer price, and was skewed to Long Only investors, who received c.70% of the shares. The top 5 lines received c.70% and the top 10 lines c.81% of the deal. The book was anchored by a large order from a high-quality Long Only investor, which represented c. 50% of the deal.
AZ/STJ provided critical advice around timing, size and ultimate pricing tactics to achieve an optimal transaction (in terms of both size and price) for Rhône.
Since the first trade in November 2020, the share price has seen a >115% increase. AZ/STJ continue to work with Fluidra to further enhance its investment case, to drive strong share price performance, based on Management’s exceptional execution of its strategy.
