Mid Europa Partners (Mid Europa), a private equity investor in Central and South Eastern Europe, has listed its portfolio company, Waberer’s International (Waberer’s) through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Budapest Stock Exchange.
Waberer’s shares will start trading on 6 July 2017.
Waberer’s IPO values the Company’s equity at nearly EUR300 million and is the largest on the Budapest Stock Exchange since 1998. The stock will be included in the BUX, Hungary’s top index, and will be its 5th largest constituent.
Through the Offering, the Company will raise EUR50 million of new capital, which will be used to fund the acquisition of Link and Link Services (Link) and for general corporate purposes. Link is one of the largest and fastest growing road transportation and freight forwarding companies in Poland with a highly complementary business model to Waberer’s. The acquisition will further solidify Waberer’s position as the largest full truckload transportation operator in Europe.
As part of the IPO, Mid Europa will sell a minority stake in the Company, and will continue to remain a significant shareholder supporting Waberer’s, and benefitting from its future growth.
Nikolaus Bethlen, Partner of Mid Europa, says: “The success of the Waberer’s IPO demonstrates the confidence of investors in the Company and the regional growth story. Since our 2011 investment, Mid Europa has supported the management of Waberer’s in the evolution of the Company to this point, where it is a publicly listed leader in European logistics. We look forward to working with management as they realise Waberer’s expansion and consolidation strategy, further strengthening the Company’s leadership position. We are pleased that the IPO not only provides the basis for Waberer’s next phase of development, but also demonstrates the attractiveness of the Budapest Stock Exchange for raising significant funding for growth companies.”
Csanad Daniel, Associate Director of Mid Europa who led the transaction execution, says: “When we initially invested in 2011, we saw Waberer’s as an ideal IPO candidate given its strong growth profile and pan-European market leadership in asset-based road freight transportation. Since then, we have developed Waberer’s from a founder-led business to a public company professionalizing the organization, complementing and strengthening the services offering through selective acquisitions (Szemerey in 2013, Wáberer Hungária Biztosító in 2016 and Link in 2017) and investing in IT which is key to the Company’s efficient operations and continued growth. We are proud to see Waberer’s becoming a publicly listed company.”
The transaction was executed by Csanad Daniel with the support of Bence Horvath and Aleksandar Dragicevic.
Citigroup and Berenberg acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners for the Offering, Erste Group and Renaissance Capital acted as Joint Bookrunners. Erste Group acted as Lead Manager of the Hungarian Public Offering. White & Case and Lakatos, Köves and Partners acted as issuer’s counsels and Shearman & Sterling and Kinstellar as underwriters’ counsels.
