Auto Trader valued at £2.35bn as shares go on market
AUTO Trader Group has been valued at £2.35bn with shares priced at 235p and available on the London Stock Exchange from today.
The Manchester-based company is raising £437m after deducting the underwriting costs and other fees and expenses of the offer of £23.3m.
The shares raced ahead on their debut and ended the day at 262p.
Auto Trader’s IPO is for 59% of its shares and the company says it will use the net proceeds, together with new bank facilities and existing cash to facilitate the repayment of all amounts outstanding under the group’s existing junior and senior debt facilities.
The selling shareholders – comprising two entities wholly-owned by private equity firm Apax Europe VII and with Deutsche Bank as stabilising manager – will receive £926.2m.
Autotrader was co-founded in 1975 by John Madejski, who imported the idea from the US, alongside Paul Gibbons.
Madejski went on to take over Reading Football Club in 1991.
Last year, the company rebranded and is now known as Auto Trader UK. It employs 950 people.
Once a popular weekly publication, Auto Trader has shifted from print to online while growing revenues and earnings.
The business helps car dealers to buy and sell cars as well as advertising cars to retail consumers. It claims that it attracts 35 million visitors a month to its website, some 4.2 times that of its nearest competitor.
