Bridgepoint sets London IPO of up to £2.9bn
Private equity firm Bridgepoint’s London IPO could value the company at as much as £2.9bn, in the first major UK listing for the industry in decades.
The buyout group, which has around €27.4bn of assets under management across equity and debt funds, is looking to raise up to £789m when it lists on the London Stock exchange, according to deal terms seen by Bloomberg.
Bridgepoint is expected to start trading on 21 July, and set a share price ranging from 300 pence to 350 pence apiece.
Its London IPO will see the company valued at up to £2.9bn – the first major listing by a UK private equity company in almost three decades.
The amount raised could soar to £907m, if additional stock is added to the offering to cover an over-allotment option. Bridgepoint is looking to raise £300m for the deal, and selling shareholders make up the rest.
Fidelity International, T. Rowe Price and Mawer have put an order in for around £300m of the offering, according to the deal terms.
“Over the last 30 years we’ve built the global leader in middle market growth investing, with strength and depth across two very complementary strategies in private equity and private credit,” said executive chairman William Jackson, when the group announced its plans to go public a fortnight ago.
“Bridgepoint operates across the middle market at scale, providing access for some of the world’s most experienced investors to attractive growth businesses through its unique local insight and expertise and its well-resourced platform. We have delivered strong and consistent returns for investors and shareholders through different economic cycles,” Jackson said.
Making IPO history
The float marks a rare entrance to public markets for a private equity firm and will place Bridgepoint among the biggest listed on the London Stock exchange.
It will sit alongside London-listed 3i Group and Intermediate Capital Group, who both listed in London in 1994 – before Bridgepoint was formed in 2000 following a management buyout from Natwest Equity Partners.
Since 1994, the largest private equity firms have stayed privately owned.
It comes amid a flurry of private equity dealmaking as buyout groups move in on companies that have been left reeling from the pandemic.
It previously owned Pret A Manager before selling it to German group JAB Holdings in 2018 for £1.5bn. Earlier this month it took a minority stake in Asian fast food chain Itsu.
It has also invested in Dorna, which holds the commercial rights to MotoGP.
JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are joint global coordinators on the IPO, while BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are joint bookrunners.
Bridgepoint has been asked for comment on the deal update.