STJ advises Rhône Capital on its upsized €425m 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 Bookbuild (“ABB”) offering. This transaction represents our second consecutive mandate as advisors to Rhône in a placement of Fluidra shares, following the €200m ABB last November.
The transaction raised €425m, upsized from €375m at launch due to strong demand from institutional investors, via the sale of 21 million ordinary shares, representing c.10.7% of the company’s ordinary share capital and 44 days’ trading volume (EU ticker). Rhône’s stake in Fluidra following the transaction will be c.21.5%.
Accounts were wall-crossed with discount indications of 5%, with final placement price of €20.20 representing a tight discount of 4.3% to the market closing price, compared to a market average discount of 5.6% for European Secondary ABBs in 2020. The tight discount is in line with the discount achieved in Rhône’s previous placement.
The strong November placement to high quality Long Only accounts contributed to a 20% share price increase and double the trading volume prior to this trade. Continued dialogue with the banks to enhance demand visibility enabled Rhône to work towards an early break of lock-up before the start of the black-out period prior to FY2020 results.
The book consisted of c.70 orders, was c. 2.2x oversubscribed at the offer price, and was skewed heavily to Long Only investors, who received c.75% of the shares. The top 5 lines received c.55% and the top 10 lines c.70% of the deal. The deal was cornerstoned by one order at strike which represented 37% of the Long Only allocations.
The trade will further enhance stock liquidity and move Fluidra closer towards Ibex 35 Index inclusion in the next review with a potentially higher weighting on the back of the increased free float.
AZ/STJ provided critical advice around timing, delivery of cornerstone investors, size and ultimate pricing tactics to achieve an optimal transaction (in terms of size, price and quality of investors) for Rhône and Fluidra.
Since AZ/STJ first began discussions with Fluidra 12 months ago, the share price has seen an almost 100% increase. AZ/STJ continue to work with Fluidra to further enhance its investment case and drive strong share price performance.
