Fluidra was founded in 1969 by four Catalan families (Planes, Serra, Corbera and Garrigós) with the name of Astral Construcciones Metálicas. Headquartered in Sabadell, Barcelona, it is a swimming pool and wellness equipment company. In 2007, the company became a public company, listing on Madrid stock exchange.
AZ Capital together with STJ Advisors have advised Rhône Capital (“Rhône”) on its placement of shares in Fluidra SA (“Fluidra”), a leading global manufacturer and distributor of equipment for swimming pools, via an accelerated bookbuilt offering.
The transaction raised gross proceeds of €425 MM via the sale of 21 MM ordinary shares, representing 10.7% of the company’s ordinary share capital and 47 days’ trading volume. The transaction was upsized from €175 MM at launch and from €125 MM during wall-crossing. Rhône Capital’s stake in Fluidra following the transaction will be c.21.5%. Accounts were wall-crossed with discounts indications of 5%, with final placement price of €20.20, representing a tight discount of 4.3% to the market closing price, compared to a market average discount of 5.6% for European Secondary ABBs in 2020. The tight discount is in line with the 4.2% discount achieved in the advised November placement. The offer was 2.2 times oversubscribed at the offer price and was skewed heavily to Long Only investors, who received c. 75% of the shares.
AZ Capital and STJ Advisors provided advice concerning transaction timing, delivery of cornerstone investors, size and ultimate pricing tactics to achieve an optimal transaction (in terms of both size and price) for Rhône. Bank of America and Berenberg were the deal’s bookrunners.
AZ Capital
Advised in the sale of
Fluidra, S.A., a company of Rhône Capital
to