IPO WATCH: Europe Perks Up Despite Continued Uncertainty

17th Jun 2010 14:50

By Margot Patrick Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--Europe's market for initial public offerings perked up this week as U.K. fund manager Jupiter Fund Management PLC priced a GBP254 million deal and oil and gas company Fairfield Energy PLC filed plans to raise up to $500 million to develop its North Sea oil fields. Bankers were also busy working on pitches earlier in the week for the Enel Green Power IPO, which could be the year's largest, at EUR3 billion or more. A mandate decision and initial prospectus filing are expected shortly. In London, Jupiter raised GBP220 million and its managers cashed out GBP34 million of their existing shares, valuing the company at EUR755 million. That was less than early expectations, but observers and people working on the deal said it was a good result in tough markets, and put the company's valuation inline with peers. In conditional dealing Thursday, the stock was trading at 188 pence at 1340 GMT, up 14% from its 165-pence offer price. The London Stock Exchange will see at least one more big IPO before the summer lull, after Fairfield Energy on Thursday said it aims to raise between $450 million and $500 million for further growth. The company was set up five years ago with backing from a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus, to take advantage of the handover of oil field assets from the big incumbents to smaller, independent companies. Pricing is expected in mid-July, with Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs running the order books. Bankers working on a planned IPO of online grocer Ocado this week said there's still no decision on whether the transaction will come this month or be delayed until the fall. Elsewhere, Poland state-owned utility Tauron Polska Energia is to assign a final price to its planned $1.5 billion offer on Monday, at a maximum price of 0.70 zlotys a share. The government is selling about 52% of the company, as part of its plan to reduce its debt this year with the proceeds from privatizations. In Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's (ISP.MI) planned initial public offering of its Banca Fideuram asset management business is likely to join a growing list of deals being postponed because of tricky market conditions, people with knowledge of the situation said this week. The bank had been expected to list up to 60% of the company, generating around EUR1.7 billion in cash from the sale if it achieved the target valuation of at least EUR3 billion for the entire business. An even bigger fish--Enel Green Power--is penciled in for a stock market debut in October. With an expected fund-raising of at least EUR3 billion and market capitalization of EUR10 billion or more, the deal would be the largest in Europe since Spanish rival Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) raised EUR4.1 billion from the flotation of its renewables unit, Iberdrola Renovables SA (IBR.MC) in December 2007. Banks competing for the mandate include Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) unit Banca IMI, UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI), Morgan Stanley (MS), HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and UBS AG (UBS), people involved in the process said. Mediobanca SpA (MB.MI) is financial adviser to Enel. -By Margot Patrick, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9451; [email protected] (Sabrina Cohen in Milan contributed to this article.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 17, 2010 09:50 ET (13:50 GMT)