The SSP Group which is a food and beverage retailer at train stations and airports saw its shares jump after it raised around $826 million in its I.P.O in London.
Select Service Partner priced its offering of 229.3 million shares at £2.10 per share, valuing the company at $1.7 billion or £997 million. The I.P.O which was priced near the low end of its expected range of £2 to £2.40 per share was five times oversubscribed.
Select Service Partner’s shares traded up 6.7 percent to £2.24 in London in conditional trading. Unrestricted trading of the company’s shares is expected to begin on Tuesday.
SSP raised gross proceeds of around £482 million. However that amount could increase if an overallotment of shares is fully exercised. Earlier, SSP said it was expecting to raise around £500 million in the I.P.O. The food and beverage retailer plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt.
The chief executive of SSP Group, Kate Swann said that this is an important next step for the company and they are looking forward to life as a listed company. Kate Swann was formerly the top executive at the retailer WH Smith.
According to sources, Select Service Partner is the latest company backed by private equity to seek a public listing as part of a flurry of initial public offerings in London, with more than $9 billion raised this year.
SSP, whose brands include Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza was brought by the EQT Partners, the Swedish private equity firm in 2006.
If the overallotment of shares is fully exercised, EQT Partners is expected to hold a 34.7 percent stake in SSP after the offering.
Based in London, Select Service Partner was formed in 1961 as a division of the airline group SAS, known as SAS Catering.
SSP operates 1,981 food and beverage outlets in railway stations, airports and other travel locations in 29 countries in the Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia. SSP also operates an onboard catering service, Rail Gourmet. Select Service Partner employs around 30, 000 people worldwide.
SSP posted revenue of £1.83 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2013.
Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs are acting as underwriters on the offering. The financial adviser of SSP Group is Lazard.
