Shares in transport firm Ceva Logistics drop in Swiss debut

Spexis AG

04/05/2018 11:39

By Oliver Hirt
    ZURICH, May 4 (Reuters) - Shares in transport group Ceva
Logistics  CEVAL.S  fell more than 8 percent on their Swiss
market debut on Friday as even pricing at the bottom end of its
share offer range failed to spur demand in Switzerland's biggest
IPO this year.
    Owned by private equity firm Apollo  APO.N , Ceva Logistics
raised 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.20 billion) in an offering
of new shares that included CMA CGM Group  CMACG.UL  taking a
roughly 25 percent stake.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1RX0QI
    By mid-session, the stock was down 8.1 percent from the
offer price of 27.50 francs per share.
    One market participant said the stock was too expensive
compared with listed Swiss peers like Kuehne+Nagel  KNIN.S  and 
Panalpina  PWTN.S .
    Turbulent markets have put the brakes on deals and listings,
with several scrapped IPOs - including those of Chinese
conglomerate HNA Group's  HNAIRC.UL  Gategroup and Swissport in
Switzerland - costing bankers money in recent months.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1R82QO  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1R82QO  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1RO35W
    "Investors can take their pick given the large number of
European IPOs," one banker said. "They have hardly made any
money from IPOs of late so they are taking a very close look in
the meantime."
    Newcomers like Deutsche Bank's  DBKGn.DE  funds unit DWS
 DWSG.DE  and Bavarian drugmaker Dermapharm  DMPG.DE  are
trading below their issue prices. 
    The next test of sentiment comes with next week's listing of
scientific publisher Springer Nature, which plans to raise up to
1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1S2827
    In Switzerland, the next big deal could be for packing group
SIG, which sources say plans an IPO in the second half.
    Antibiotics group Polyphor  POLN.S  starts trading in
Switzerland on May 15 in a deal meeting relatively brisk demand.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1SA466
    Ceva Logistics, whose clients include Ikea, Amazon  AMZN.O 
and Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE , is using proceeds from its share
sale to reduce debt.
    One person familiar with the situation said around of a
quarter of the shares sold went to hedge funds and the rest
mostly to institutional investors. Interest was slight from
Swiss investors, especially retail, another source said.
    ($1 = 0.9983 Swiss francs)
    ($1 = 0.8363 euros)

 (Writing by Michael Shields; Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((Michael.Shields@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7461; Reuters
Messaging: michael.shields.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))