Ziggo to offer 20% of shares in IPO
March 12, 2012
Ziggo, the Dutch cable provider, will offer a fifth of the company’s outstanding shares in an initial public offering that could raise up to €745 million.
The IPO will see private equity funds Warburg Pincus and Cinven – which created Ziggo by acquiring and merging three smaller cable networks in 2006 – selling off 35 million of their shares, while an additional overallotment of 15 per cent of total outstanding shares will be sold depending on investor interest. If the entire overallotment is sold, the deal will leave the two funds with 29 per cent each of the company, compared to 36.4 per cent each now.
The company said it may float additional shares in the future, but the current owners will retain control for some time. “Our shareholders are not in a rush, they believe in the future of the company,” said Bert Groenewegen, chief financial officer of Ziggo.
There has been ongoing speculation that UPC could step in with a bid for the whole company.