Private equity firm Bridgepoint plans London IPO (updated)

Zovio

29/06/2021 07:37

* Plans to raise at 300 mln pounds through new shares
    * Existing investors also plan to sell down holdings
    * Overallotment option at 15% of offer size

 (Adds detail from statement, bullet points, background)
    By Simon Jessop
    LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Bridgepoint
said on Tuesday it planned to list on the London Stock Exchange,
raising at least 300 million pounds ($416.10 million) from new
shares to help fund its growth plans and pay down debt.
    The decision to list follows a buoyant few years for private
markets as more investors turn to the private markets for yield
in a world of central bank-suppressed interest rates. Private
equity deals have risen in Britain this year, prompting
questions from some public shareholders and newspapers on
whether buyout firms are taking advantage of COVID-19 and Brexit
to snap up companies at cut-price valuations.   
    Bridgepoint, which focuses on mid-sized deals of up to 1
billion euros ($1.19 billion), was formed in 2000 after a
management buyout of NatWest's private equity arm. 
    The company, which manages 27.4 billion euros ($32.65
billion) across a range of private equity and debt funds, said
it aims to have a free-float of at least 25% and expects an
over-allotment option of a further 15% of the offer size.
    It said it would sell 300 million pounds of new shares as
well as see some existing investors sell down their holdings. 
    JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are joint global co-ordinators
on the deal, it said in a statement.
    Total operating income at Bridgepoint was 191.8 million
pounds in 2020 and the company said "significant further
profitable growth" was recorded in the first quarter of the
financial year 2021.
    "Over the last 30 years we've built the global leader in
middle market growth investing, with strength and depth across
two very complementary strategies in private equity and private
credit," said Bridgepoint's Executive Chair William Jackson.
    "Today, Bridgepoint has an increasingly global footprint
across Europe, North America and Asia. We expect this strong
growth to continue in the near and longer-term as we continue to
develop our existing strategies and further broaden our
platform."
($1 = 0.8391 euros)
($1 = 0.7210 pounds)

 (Reporting by Simon Jessop
Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
 ((simon.jessop@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0) 207 542 5052;
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