Scout24 Frankfurt Stock Exchange IPO

Overview:

• German online classifieds group, Scout24, raised around €1.16 billion through its Frankfurt Stock Exchange IPO.
• Scout24's owners - Blackstone, Deutsche Telekom and Hellman & Friedman - sold 38.64 million shares in the business at €30 each.
• The transaction, which valued the group at €3.23 billion, included the sale of 26 million shares held by the group's three shareholders and a capital increase of 7.6 million additional shares, which raised €708 million and €228 million respectively.
• Strong demand for Scout24's shares saw the issuer's shareholders exercise a greenshoe option and sell an additional 5.04 million shares for €151.2 million.
• Scout24, which runs Germany’s largest online real estate sales advertising business, ImmobilienScout24, and the country’s second-largest online automobile marketplace, said it would use the proceeds of the IPO to repay debt.
• Following the IPO, investors Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, through Willis Lux Holdings, retained control of 49% of Scout24, and Deutsche Telekom owned around 14% of the business.
• Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman bought 70% of Scout24 from Deutsche Telekom for around €1.5 billion in 2014.
• Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs were joint global coordinators on the IPO, and acted as joint bookrunners alongside Barclays, Jefferies, and Morgan Stanley.
• In September 2016, Blackstone divested of its remaining 12.6% stake in Scout24 for around €430 million.   

Ben Naylor - Regional Editor