STJ Advisors acted as independent advisor to Advent International on the €340m sale of shares in InPost
2024
We are pleased to announce that STJ Advisors acted as independent advisor to Advent International on the €340m sale of shares in InPost via accelerated bookbuild.
STJ advised Advent on the €3.2bn IPO of InPost in 2021, the private placement of shares to PPF in 2023 and now their first marketed offering since the IPO. Despite challenging market conditions over the period since 2021, and temporary headwinds for the InPost share price (reaching a low of €4.18ps), STJ has remained close to Advent and has provided ongoing advice regarding their holding.
Timing and structural advice to achieve an optimal execution window:
- Advent captured a huge amount of value by choosing the post-Q2 results window, with the stock having appreciated +200% since lows of 2022 and more recently having benefited from a 14% rally since latest results announcement.
- STJ’s strategic advice around execution windows balanced an elevated price against a backdrop of macro volatility. The advice was to proceed with the transaction ahead of further macro noise coming from ECB and Fed interest rate decisions and CPI data prints the following weeks.
Structural advice including wallcross strategy and investor targeting to gauge visibility ahead of launch:
- STJ recommended a staggered 1.5 days wallcross, initially addressed to shareholders and key long only accounts to maximise visibility of demand and to de-risk the transaction.
- STJ provided advice around key targets, message and broader size strategy that was key to launching the deal with a books covered message shortly after.
- Anchor orders from high quality LOs allowed for a competitive bookbuilding and allocation process despite the nature of recent secondary ABBs being led by HFs.
- STJ was able to use its long-standing relationship with InPost and resulting knowledge of the share register to uncover a number of local Long Only orders which provided helpful support in bookbuilding momentum.
Bank selection and incentivisation:
- STJ played an instrumental role in coordinating the bank syndicate to ensure a comprehensive outreach during wallcross and post-launch.
- This included onboarding two additional joint bookrunners ahead of launch to ensure complementary investor access of European and local Polish accounts.
Best price and terms for our client:
- On the back of pre-launch indications and aligned with the pricing objectives of the selling shareholder, STJ advised on a deal size of c.4% of shares outstanding and accomplished a 60 day lock up.
- The final pricing and allocation embody a very successful result for what was Advent’s first public market sale of InPost since the IPO. The price of €17 per share is above IPO price of €16, represents a 7.6% discount to previous close (in line with recent Galderma ABB) and c.2% premium to the 1-month VWAP.
- The terms achieved are more notable in the context of the extremely busy evening for European ECM with 7 other ABBs being priced on the same evening amounting to $2.4bn of total proceeds – including one other Polish transaction.
STJ remains at the forefront of European capital markets advisory, supporting issuers in their exit journeys, including recently successfully advising Newlight and RIT on their share sale of Helios Towers in June 2024.
