Automotive supplier Gestamp has said that it intends to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) listing of shares on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges.
Headquartered in Spain, Gestamp provides a wide range of products to automotive OEMs. It says it wants to continue to be the global partner of choice for OEMs in order to maintain its historical above-market growth.
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Gestamp recorded revenues of EUR7,549m in 2016, a 7.3% increase over the previous year, which is above the average growth experienced by the sector in the same period, it says. The company recorded double-digit growth in both EBITDA (+10.6% year-on-year to EUR841m) and EBIT (+15.6% year-on-year to EUR463m), with an increase in its net profit of 37.1% to EUR221m during 2016.
Gestamp's Chairman and CEO, Francisco J. Riberas, said that the IPO is the next step for the company. "Becoming a public company is the next natural step in our growth trajectory," he said. "It will enable us to increase our ability to attract and retain the best talent, institutionalise our relationship with our stakeholders based on corporate governance best practices while broadening the shareholder base and diversifying our sources of financing. We will maintain our family-owned, long-term culture that has enabled us to become a leading supplier in the automotive sector with highly engineered products and a broad global international presence."
"The solid results in 2016 demonstrate our focus on profitable growth with a noteworthy financial discipline. We will continue focusing on this trend, preserving our strategic relationships with customers and capitalizing on key trends in the automotive sector such as: increased OEM outsourcing, common platforms and global model strategies, stricter emissions regulations and safety standards, higher comfort features and dynamics and increased importance of electric vehicles."
The IPO will consist of an offering of existing shares currently held by the Riberas family holding company Acek and its subsidiary, Risteel, to international institutional investors. Gestamp 2020 will not sell any Shares in the IPO.
The free float will be of at least 25%. After the offering, the Riberas family intends to remain as the majority shareholder of Gestamp, while Mitsui will maintain its current stake. The offering is expected to take place during the second quarter of 2017.
