Thursday 15th July 2021
Owners buy shares themselves
C&A family saves IPO
With an unusual coup, the Brenninkmeijer family of entrepreneurs saves the soon-to-be-planned IPO of their own automotive supplier Novem. In the absence of public interest, the owners of C&A are taking action themselves. It is unusual for a new issue to be slow-moving at the moment.
The last IPO of the year in Frankfurt was also the most arduous: Only a large purchase order from the Brenninkmeijer family for shares in the Bavarian automotive supplier Novem brought the issue across the finish line. Almost a third of the 15 million papers sold goes to the owners of the clothing chain C&A, as Novem announced in the night.
Curious: the German-Dutch family has owned the manufacturer of decorative parts for ten years. After the IPO, only part of the block of shares will be held by the Cofra holding company instead of the Bregal holding company. It is currently unusual for a new issue to become slow-moving. For the most part, the past new issues have been good business for investors.
The shares of 10 of the 16 newcomers to the stock exchange are up, only 5 are losing. So far this year, the Vodafone radio tower subsidiary Vantage Towers has been the most successful, with an increase of 24 percent since it was first listed, ahead of the bike retailer Bike24 with 22 percent. The shares of the transmission manufacturer hGears were on Thursday, however, 14 percent below the issue price. The new issues in 2021 have brought in 9.8 billion euros so far. In view of numerous other candidates, the best year for IPOs since the boom on the Neuer Markt 20 years ago is emerging. The year 2018 is to be beaten, in which a total of 18 companies went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with an issue volume of 11.3 billion euros.
Only the online car dealer MeinAuto and the solar and wind farm operator Blue Elephant Energy withdrew, who instead obtained fresh money from new investors for its expansion.
Entry into the exit?
Novem allotted the shares at 16.50 euros, at the lower end of the price range, which went to 19.50 euros. The company had to tremble for the success of the issue until the last day. Until then, there were just as many orders as there were shares to be sold. But according to a rule of thumb, the purchase orders should amount to twice the issue volume in order to achieve a good mix of short-term and long-term oriented shareholders. Then the accompanying banks reported large orders from the Brenninkmeijers and another unnamed investor, to which a total of 7.42 million of the 14.95 million shares issued went.
Only 17 percent of Novem shares will be in free float when the stock market starts on Monday (July 19). But with the stock exchange listing, the family can sell more shares; however, it is subject to a holding period of six months.
Bregal had joined the company from Vorbach near Bayreuth ten years ago when Novem was in financial difficulties because a financial investor had charged the company with too many debts. In the meantime, Novem has largely been excused. The company takes in 50 million euros with the issue of new shares, the total volume of the issue is 247 million euros.
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