The Deputy Managing Director of Ardian Mathias Burghardt on Friday deemed an IPO of the French management company “useful” in the future but ruled out any project of this type in the short term.
“If the conditions are met, ultimately I think an IPO is useful,” he declared in an interview with AFP.
The IPO of Ardian, a world-class French player in the private equity sector, has been the subject of rumors for several years.
The company, born in 1996 in the fold of the insurer Axa, has today arrived at a crucial stage in its life: it must manage the passing of the torch from the emblematic founder and president Dominique Senequier, 70 years old, to the generation next.
Ms. Senequier’s inner circle evolved last September with the appointment of Mark Benedetti to the position of Managing Director, surrounded by three Deputy Managing Directors: Vladimir Colas, Jan Philipp Schmitz and Mathias Burghardt, also Chairman of the Management Board of Ardian France.
The shareholder structure reflects the history of the company: employees hold around 45% of the shares, alongside mainly French institutional investors, including Axa, Crédit Mutuel (around 15%) and the Hermès group, which indicates in its latest annual report holding 11.91% of the company.
An IPO would provide liquidity to historic shareholders and make it possible to bring in new ones.
It would present other advantages, particularly in a period of consolidation in the sector, but also disadvantages, management companies being able to be subject to a certain volatility on the stock market, underlined Mr. Burghardt.
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The Deputy Managing Director also shared his ambitions for development “towards the West”, targeting the American continent without saying it.
The moment may seem favorable: private equity activities having suffered a sharp slowdown since the rise in central bank key rates – which increases the cost of corporate acquisition debt – opportunities to purchase competitors may arise. to present.
Ardian presents itself as one of the “global leaders” in private investment, with $164 billion in assets managed or advised on behalf of more than 1,600 clients worldwide.