Denmark's OW Bunker to announce IPO this week

marinelink.com March 3, 2014

Danish ship fuel supplier OW Bunker aims to publish plans for a stock market listing this week, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

"The plan is to be listed before Easter," one source said, adding that Morgan Stanley, Carnegie, Nordea and ABG would lead the IPO.

Two other sources said an intention to float letter will be published later this week.

Private equity group Altor has owned OW Bunker since buying its parent Wrist Group in July 2007.

No indication was given on the price Altor paid, although local media said that it could have been anywhere between 1 and 2 billion Danish crowns ($182-364 million).

"An exit may well come in the foreseeable future," Altor's head of Danish activities Soren Johansen told Reuters in January.

OW Bunker posted a profit of $54 million on sales of $14 billion in 2012. No newer figures have been released, but in the previous two years net profit rose by about 25 percent on average.

Peer's such as World Fuel Services, the U.S. company that sells marine, aviation and land fuel products, is valued at about 15 times profit. Assuming that OW Bunker's 2013 profit increased in line with recent years, a multiple of 15 times would yield a value of about $1 billion.

Other leading players in the industry include Chemoil Energy and Aegean Marine Petroleum Network.

A spokesman from Altor declined to comment. ($1 = 5.4031 Danish crowns)