Kabel Deutschland completes €760m IPO

Kabel Deutschland has successfully completed its IPO, however the €760 million raised fell short of initial expectations.
 
The operator priced the shares at €22, at the low end of its anticipated range of €21.50-€25.50, and sold 34.5 million shares, including an oversubscription allotment, Bloomberg said
 
The deal values Kabel Deutschland at around $5 billion (€3.69 billion), giving majority shareholder and IPO initiator Providence Equity Partners a $3 billion profit from its initial investment, the WSJ said. Kabel Deutschland
 
But Providence's stake has been reduced from 88% to between 66% and 62% - depending on how much of the oversubscription is executed – from the IPO.
 
People with intimate knowledge of the deal told Reuters less than 5% of the two-times covered offering came from major German institutional investors. The majority of the shares were bought up by UK and US investors, the sources said.
 
The relative success of the IPO – Europe's biggest in two years – has been seen as an indication that the region's investors are starting to regain their appetites.
 
But, Reuters notes, just three of Europe's 10 IPOs from this year are currently trading above their offer price.