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INTERNATIONAL. UPDATE: Private equity firm Advent International has raised CHF442 million (US$476.5 million) from the successful sale of its remaining 13% stake in Swiss travel retailer Dufry, Reuters reported this afternoon.
Global Retail Group, through which Advent owned the 3,879,609 shares, said today that it had sold the entire holding for CHF114 per share, a -4.3% discount to Tuesday’s closing share price, the news agency reported.
Dufry’s share price fell on the news from last night’s closing price of CHF119.10 to a low of CHF115.60, but rose later in the day, closing at CHF118.00.
EARLIER STORY
Private equity firm Advent International is planning to sell its entire stake in Dufry AG, equivalent to about 13% of the Switzerland-based travel retailer’s capital, The Moodie Report confirmed with Dufry this morning.
In a statement issued after close of trading on Tuesday, Advent International said it has appointed Morgan Stanley as bookrunner for the placing of the 3,879,609 shares.
The process typically means that institutional investors will buy the shares if they find the price attractive, which is usually at a modest discount to the most recent share price quoted on the relevant stock exchange(s).
Normally, one source said, the shares would be placed within one or two business days. If there is insufficient demand, then either the seller fails to sell some of the shares offered, or the intermediary bank/broker ends up with some if the placing is underwritten.
Based on Tuesday’s closing price of CHF119.10 per share, the Advent stake is worth around CHF462 million (US$500 million). The company’s 52-week high is CHF127.60.
Founded in 1984, Boston-based Advent International is one of the private equity industry’s oldest-established businesses. It first invested in Dufry in 2004, when it led a buyout of the travel retailer and became its principal shareholder for a sum estimated at around US$200 million.
That move was the forerunner to the November 2005 IPO of Dufry shares on the Swiss stock market. At the time Advent retained its majority stake but from 2007 began divesting its shares, beginning with a sale of 16.3% of the business in 2007.
When it bought into Dufry Advent was no newcomer to duty free: in 1996 it was part of an alliance that acquired a majority shareholding in Aeroboutiques de Mexico. Later that year, it created Latinoamericana Duty Free, which was subsequently listed on the Mexican stock market in 1997.
Click here for more background on Advent’s entry into the Dufry business in 2004.
