Water cooler firm set for a £41m float
THE company that keeps chancellor George Osborne hydrated during long days at 11 Downing Street will this morning announce its intention to raise £41m on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), in the exchange’s second biggest float of the year so far.
Waterlogic, which supplies purifying water dispensers to offices, hotels and gyms, including No.11, plans to raise £41m to fund acquisitions, with further spending planned to develop its product line and repay loans.
If the listing prices at £1.45 per share as planned, Waterlogic will be valued at £112.5m, netting co-founders Ariel Recanati and Jeremy Ben-David a combined paper windfall of around £50m. Recanati – the son of prominent Jewish businessman Leon Recanati – and Ben-David founded Waterlogic in 1992 with £150,000 of capital from friends and family.
Under the terms of the listing, the new chairman and chief executive of the company will be locked into the business for at least 12 months following the float, after which their 90 per cent overall stake in the company will be diluted to around 25 per cent each.
Ahead of the publication of its official listing prospectus this morning, a company spokesman said the offer was already oversubscribed by 2.5 times.
“Much of the demand for the IPO is down to interest in the company’s firewall technology, a unique Waterlogic product,” said a spokesperson for the company. Firewall purifies water as it is dispensed into the cup, rather than in the storage tank.
Waterlogic is also in talks with a large water utility to provide a mains alternative to regular tap water, which would allow them to offer purified water systems in residential households.
MEET THE ADVISERS: LIBERUM CAPITAL
STEVE PEARCE
LIBERUM CAPITAL
WATERLOGIC is being advised on its AIM listing by Steve Pearce, a senior member of the corporate finance team at Liberum Capital.
Pearce joined Liberum in 2007 from Arden Partners, having previously worked at Société Generale and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
With specific responsibility for the telecoms, utilities, support services and small & mid-cap sectors at Liberum, Pearce has regularly worked for business telecoms specialist Daisy Group, including on its £87m takeover of Vialtus Solutions in 2009, and of Vodafone’s mobile voice and data business Outsourcery earlier this year.
At Arden, Pearce advised Metal Bulletin on its acquisition by Euromoney Institutional Investor for £227m in 2006.
Qualified as a chartered accountant, Pearce is a graduate of Durham University.