GDANSK (Reuters) – A company controlled by private equity firm Advent International has placed an about 4% stake in parcel locker firm InPost for 340 million euros ($375.56 million) to institutional investors, a bookrunner said on Wednesday.
Advent’s company AI Prime & Cy S.C.A. offered 20 million InPost shares via an accelerated placement at 17 euros per share, a discount of 7.6% to Tuesday’s closing price.
AI Prime’s ownership in InPost will be about 11% once the deal is concluded on Friday, and remaining shares held by AI Prime will be subject to a 60-day lock-up period.
Advent had invested in InPost in 2017 and was its biggest shareholder until it sold part of its stake to Czech investment firm PPF Group. PPF owns 28.75% in InPost, according to InPost’s website.
Under Advent, InPost has built up its dominant position in Poland in recent years and accelerated international expansion.
InPost shares, hit by competition worries in Poland, have been gradually recovering as it managed to grow its market share at home and made progress abroad. They are up 47% year-to-date and continued to rise this week after its second-quarter results beat expectations on Friday.
($1 = 0.9053 euros)
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; editing by Milla Nissi)
