(Bloomberg) -- Allfunds Group Plc shares soared after the mutual-fund distributor’s 1.88 billion-euro ($2.3 billion) initial public offering in Amsterdam, bolstering the Dutch capital in its race with London to become Europe’s top listing venue.
The shares climbed 8.7% to 12.50 euros at 9:03 a.m. in Amsterdam from the IPO price of 11.50 euros. The deal values Allfunds at 7.2 billion euros, according to a statement Friday.
Shareholders, including private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY) SA and Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) Group AG, offloaded a combined 26% stake in the company. If there is enough demand, the sellers can increase the deal size to as much as 2.16 billion euros. Allfunds didnot raise any money in the offering. The IPO price was close to the top end of the initial range at which the shares were marketed.
Allfunds casts itself as a one-stop shop for the distribution of fund products, sitting between banks and asset managers. The company says it had more than 1.2 trillion euros of assets under administration as of the end of 2020 and a 12% annual growth rate in revenue since 2016.
The decision to list in Amsterdam is a sign of the city’s increased clout, having surpassed London as Europe’s main share-trading center in January in the wake of Brexit. Allfunds has signaled that it was attracted to the Dutch capital because of its growing appeal as a listings hub for international businesses with a technology focus.
Amsterdam has now hosted two of Europe’s top three biggest IPOs this year, with Allfunds joining Polish parcel-locked provider InPost SA after its debut in late January. Proceeds from initial share sales on Dutch stock exchange now tally about $8 billion this year, the highest amount on record for this period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Blow to Madrid
The choice of venue also means Madrid missed out on what could have been its biggest IPO since wireless tower operator Cellnex Telecom SA in 2015. Allfunds would also easily be big enough to earn a slot in the IBEX-35 benchmark index, if the owners had opted to list on the Spanish bourse.
Allfunds was created by Banco Santander SA (NYSE:SAN) in 2000 and is headquartered in Madrid, with most of its top management being Spanish, including Chief Executive Officer Juan Alcaraz. Hellman & Friedman, which has owned the company since 2017, expanded the business through a series of acquisitions, including a purchase of Credit Suisse’s InvestLab platform.
A total of 850 million euros of the offering was taken up by cornerstone investors, including BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK)., Jupiter Fund Management Plc, Mawer Investment Management Ltd., Janus Henderson Investors and Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) Asset Management.
BNP Paribas, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C)., Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) are joint global coordinators on Allfunds’ offering. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)., Barclays (LON:BARC) Plc, CaixaBank SA (OTC:CAIXY), HSBC Holdings Plc (LON:HSBA), ING Groep (AS:INGA) NV's ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:ISNPY) SpA and Banco Santander (MC:SAN) SA are joint bookrunners. Rothschild & Co. is the company’s IPO adviser.