AutoStore, Norway’s biggest IPO in two decades, valued at $12.4 bln

OSLO, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Norwegian robotics agency AutoStore stated on Wednesday it had priced its preliminary public providing (IPO) at 31 Norwegian crowns per share, the highest of its goal vary, valuing the corporate at 103.5 billion crowns ($12.4 billion).

SoftBank-backed AutoStore will probably be Norway’s most dear new itemizing for twenty years when it goes public on Euronext’s Oslo Inventory Trade afterward Wednesday.

The corporate raised 2.7 billion crowns in money from the difficulty of latest shares, whereas present homeowners reminiscent of Thomas H. Lee Companions, EQT and others offered inventory value 15.3 billion crowns.

“The cash we get from the IPO will probably be used primarily to deleverage the debt to a stage that’s extra regular for a public firm,” CEO Karl Johan Lier informed Reuters.

He plans to carry down the leverage ratio to round 2.5 from the present ratio of between 5 and 6.

Following the IPO, the free float of AutoStore shares will quantity to about 17.4% of the general fairness.

Based in 1996, AutoStore has 20,000 robots deployed throughout greater than 35 international locations to automate warehouses. The corporate, whose prospects embody ASDA, Gucci and Lufthansa, makes use of robots to retailer and retrieve merchandise, permitting prospects to retailer 4 instances the stock in the identical house.

In April, Japan’s SoftBank a 40% stake within the Norwegian firm for $2.8 billion, valuing AutoStore at about $7 billion on the time. SoftBank didn’t promote inventory within the IPO.

“SoftBank is an excellent companion, prepared to assist us drive extra consideration within the APAC area … they’ve a big community of firms that may doubtlessly be AutoStore prospects so we see a whole lot of potential with the connection,” Lier stated.

AutoStore is Norway’s most dear new itemizing for the reason that 2001 debut of Statoil, now referred to as Equinor , which was valued at 151 billion crowns on the time of its IPO.

4 cornerstone buyers, Alecta Pensionsforsakring, FIL Investments, Mawer Funding Administration and WCM Funding Administration, had every dedicated to speculate $200 million forward of the IPO.

AutoStore reported internet income of $182.1 million final yr and expects income of about $300 million in 2021, rising to greater than $500 million in 2022 with a challenge pipeline value $3.4 billion throughout 2,000 initiatives.

Bankers from Carnegie, J.P Morgan, Morgan Stanley, ABG Sundal Collier, Citigroup, Jefferies, Mizuho, SpareBank 1 Markets and Moelis have been concerned within the deal.

($1 = 8.3474 Norwegian crowns)

Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche; modifying by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates

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