First day of trading in the Lauritz.com share on Nasdaq First North Premier Stockholm
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Press release
Copenhagen 22 June, 2016
First day of trading in the Lauritz.com share on Nasdaq First North Premier Stockholm
Lauritz.com Group A/S (Lauritz.com or the Company) today announces the outcome of the offering to acquire shares in the Company in connection with the initial public offering of its shares and listing on Nasdaq First North Premier Stockholm (the Offering). The Offering attracted strong interest both among institutional investors as well as the general public in Sweden and Denmark. The Offering was substantially over-subscribed with more than 3,000 new shareholders receiving allotment
As previously announced, the price in the Offering was SEK 15 per share, corresponding to a value of the total number of shares in the Company outstanding following the completion of the Offering of approximately SEK 610 million The Offering comprises in total 14,787,879 shares, of which Lauritz.com offers 4,666,667 newly issued shares and Lauritz.com Holding A/S (Bengt Sundström) (the Selling Shareholder) offers 10,121,212 existing shares The Selling Shareholder has granted an over-allotment option corresponding to 10 percent of the number of shares in the Offering (the Over-allotment option). If the Over-allotment option is fully utilised, the Offering will comprise 16,266,667 shares corresponding to a total value of the Offering of approximately SEK 244 million or 40 percent of the total number of shares outstanding in the Company following completion of the Offering. The total number of shares in the Company upon completion of the Offering will amount to 40,666,667 shares The newly issued shares will provide the Company with gross proceeds of approximately SEK 70 million before deduction of costs related to the Offering Further, the Selling Shareholder has undertaken to settle its shareholder loan of approximately SEK 137 million to the Company through the proceeds received from the sale of existing shares. SEK 104 million of the proceeds received by the Company will be used for redemption of bonds with a nominal value of SEK 100 million. The redemption of bonds is subject to approval from bondholders More than 3,000 investors have been allotted shares in Lauritz.com Bure Equity AB, Swedbank Robur Fonder, Catella Fondförvaltning AB and Rite Internet Ventures Holdings AB (the Cornerstone Investors) will hold in total approximately 31.8 percent of the total number of shares outstanding in the Company after the completion of the Offering Following completion of the Offering and assuming that the Over-allotment option is exercised in full, Lauritz.com Holding A/S and Mette Rode Sundstrøm will hold 55.6 percent and 4.4 percent of the shares outstanding in the Company, respectively Trading in the Company's shares on Nasdaq First North Premier Stockholm commences today, 22 June 2016, under the trading symbol LAUR Settlement takes place on 27 June 2016
Quotes from the Chairman of the Board and the CEO on the following page
Comment from the Chairman and main owner of Lauritz.com, Bengt Sundström:
Through this initial public offering we have created a solid foundation for continued profitable growth. We are very happy for the strong interest and support we have seen from both institutional investors and the general public in Sweden and Denmark. We welcome all new shareholders. Furthermore, Lauritz.com will gain important additional expertise and experience from the new members on the Board of Directors from Bure Equity AB and Rite Internet Ventures Holding AB, strengthening our ability to execute on our long term strategy. The proceeds received from the new issue, the repayment of the shareholder loan and partially repayment of the bond will strengthen our capital base and support our strategy going forward in order to create increased shareholder value. We believe that there is interesting growth potential both within Lauritz.com's current organisation and with regards to acquisitions. I look forward to help facilitate Lauritz.com's future development together with the new shareholder base and the management team.
Comment from the CEO of Lauritz.com, Mette Rode Sundstrøm:
We are proud of our listing on Nasdaq First North Premier Stockholm today. It is a culmination of 5 months of intensive preparations and 16 years of dedicated work developing Lauritz.com from one small traditional auction house to 26 auction houses in 5 countries, 2.5 million registered customer numbers and 5.7 million online visits every month. It is Lauritz.com's vision to revolutionise the auction world by democratising the perception of auctions and inspire modern consumers to sell and buy on online auctions. We are looking forward to further developing Lauritz.com with our new shareholders. We are eager to take advantage of our first mover position and continuing to drive the paradigm shift of the international industry, by migrating traditional physical auctions to online auctions, and by presenting a great diversity of objects within art, design and antiquities to a great diversity of customers. The strategy is straight-forward; more auction houses, more customers and more lots on auction at Lauritz.com, in more countries - in order to be accessible for our local sellers and global buyers.
Advisers
ABG Sundal Collier is Global Coordinator and financial advisor to the Company. Legal advisers to the Company is Linklaters Advokatbyrå Aktiebolag as to Swedish law, with LETT Law Firm P/S advising as to Danish law. Legal advisor to the Global Coordinator is Baker & McKenzie Advokatbyrå KB. Auditors of the company is Deloitte Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab.
Introduction to Lauritz.com
Lauritz.com is one of the oldest auction houses in Denmark, founded in 1885. Bengt Sundström (current majority owner and chairman of the Board), acquired Lauritz Christensen Auktioner in 1998 and initiated the digitalisation process. The Company's name was changed to Lauritz.com in 1999 and in December 1999 www.lauritz.com was launched as a pioneer within online auctions, with the aspiration to revolutionise the business internationally with a concept idea of combining the best of traditional auctioneering (expertise, reliability and physical viewing) with modern technology (accessibility, flexibility and reach).
Lauritz.com's vision is to do 'Auctions to the people' by introducing the auction concept to the modern consumer and to democratise the auction world internationally by introducing 'Quality auctions online'. The ultimate growth ambition is to establish Lauritz.com in all countries where there is an IKEA and inspire everyone to sell and buy on auction.
At present, Lauritz.com has 26 auction houses located in Denmark (13), Sweden (8), Norway (1), Germany (3) and Belgium (1). In the auction houses, sellers are able to consign items daily to Lauritz.com's in-house experts while bidders may look at items physically. All items are estimated, described and photographed prior to being put on auction. All bidding is done online except for a few annual physical fine art auctions.
The Lauritz.com platform focuses on a broad assortment within art, design, antiquities and home luxury with an item with a value above DKK 800. The Company offers both sellers and buyers a strong customer value proposition prioritizing expertise, convenience, online traffic, security and a competitive price offering.
Lauritz.com's positioning with focus on the large middle market have led to a continuous increase in its registered customer numbers from 8,000 in 2000 to more than 2.5 million in 2015 (including Stockholms Auktionsverk and QXL). Today, approximately 13,100 new customer numbers are registered every month. The online traffic shows approximately 5.7 million monthly visits, around two million unique monthly visitors and 1,050,000 monthly bids. The visits come from approximately 200 countries.
Lauritz.com operates both through its own auction houses and through auction houses operated by partners under partnership agreements. The partnership model is a variation of franchise where the local partner has the right to run an auction house under the Lauritz.com brand within a certain conceptual framework. Out of the 26 Lauritz.com auction houses, eight are owned by Lauritz.com and 18 are owned by its partners. Lauritz.com is also active in the Danish and Norwegian markets through its wholly owned subsidiaries QXL Denmark A/S and QXL.no AS, an online peer-to-peer auction platform, focusing on items with a value of less than DKK 800.
With the acquisitions of Stockholms Auktionsverk and Helsingborgs Auktionsverk in 2014 and Kunst- & Auktionshaus HERR in 2015 (asset transfer), the Company also offers physical auctions (fine art auctions). However, in 2015, over 80% of all knockdown was derived from online auctions. The Company's ability to move classical auction houses online was demonstrated by the acquisition and integration of Stockholms Auktionsverk, which showed an online auction growth of 13.4% in 2015 compared to the full year 2014. At the same time, Lauritz.com raised the EBITDA of Stockholms Auktionsverk from SEK 1.6 million in 2014 (full year) to SEK 8.5 million in 2015.[1]
Since 2000, Lauritz.com has shown strong growth with Turnover on Auctions increasing from DKK 20 million to DKK 1,084 million in 2015. The growth has been both organic and acquisitive as Lauritz.com has consolidated its market position in a fragmented market. In 2015, the Turnover on Auctions was DKK 1,084 million and EBITDA reached DKK 42 million. For the first quarter 2016, Turnover on Auctions and EBITDA was DKK 236 million and DKK 4 million, respectively. The Company expects EBITDA growth between 20-40% in 2016.
For more information, please contact:
Mette Rode Sundstrøm, CEO
E-mail: Mette@lauritz.com
Claus Boysen, CFO
E-mail: Claus@lauritz.com
For press requests please contact Christina Riis Hansen at christinar@lauritz.com or +45-26891905
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This announcement is not and does not form a part of any offering or offer for sale of securities.
In any member state within the European Economic Area (EEA), other than Denmark and Sweden, that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC as amended (together with any applicable implementing measures in any member State, the Prospectus Directive), this communication is only addressed to and is only directed to investors in that EEA member state who fulfill the criteria for exemption from the obligation to publish a prospectus, including qualified investors, within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive as implemented in each such EEA member state.
In certain jurisdictions, the publication or distribution of this press release may be subject to restrictions according to law and persons in those jurisdictions where this press release has been published or distributed should inform themselves about and abide by such restrictions.
This press release is not directed to persons located in the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia), Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa or in any other country where the offer or sale of securities is not permitted. This press release may not be announced, published or distributed, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa or any other country where such action is wholly or partially subject to legal restrictions or where such action would require additional prospectuses, other offer documentation, registrations or other actions in addition to what follows from Swedish law. The information in this press release may not be forwarded, reproduced or disclosed in such a manner that would contravene such restrictions or would require such additional prospectuses, other offer documentation, registrations or other actions. Failure to comply with this instruction may result in a violation of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) or laws applicable in other jurisdictions.
No subscription of securities have been or will be registered under the Securities Act, or with any other securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and no securities may be offered, sold, resold, transferred, delivered or distributed, directly or indirectly, into or within the United States or on account of such persons other than pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act, and in compliance with any applicable securities laws of any state or jurisdiction of the United States. No public offering of securities will be is made in the United States. There is no intention to register any securities referred to herein in the United States or to make a public offering in the United States.
The securities referred to herein have also not been and will also not be registered under the applicable securities laws of Canada, Japan or Australia and, subject to certain exemptions, may not be offered or sold in or into or for the account or benefit of any person having a registered address in, or located or resident in, Canada, Japan or Australia. There will be no public offering of the securities described herein in Canada, Japan or Australia.
This announcement and any other materials in relation to the securities described herein are only directed to (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the Order) or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may be lawfully communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons in (i), (ii) and (iii) above together being referred to as relevant persons). The securities described herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire the securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on information contained herein.
Any offering to acquire or subscribe for the securities referred to in this communication will be made by means of a prospectus that will be provided by the Company and that will contain detailed information about the Company and management, as well as financial statements. This communication is an advertisement and not a prospectus for the purposes of the Prospectus Directive. Investors should not acquire any securities referred to in this communication except on the basis of information contained in a prospectus.
Matters discussed in this announcement may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by words such as believe, expect, anticipate, intends, estimate, will, may, continue, should and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, such as no changes in existing political, legal, fiscal, market or economic conditions or in applicable legislation, regulations or rules (including, but not limited to, accounting policies, accounting treatments and tax policies), which, individually or in the aggregate, would be material to the results of operations of Lauritz.com or its ability to operate its banking and insurance businesses and that Laurtiz.com does not become a party to any legal or administrative processes that may have a material effect on the Company. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors, which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this release by such forward-looking statements. In addition, the information, opinions, targets and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are not guarantees of future financial performance and the actual results of Lauritz.com could differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, Lauritz.com urges readers not to place undue reliance on any of the statements set forth above.
The information, opinions and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as at its date, and are subject to change without notice.
[1] Please note that Lauritz.com acquired Stockholms Auktionsverk on 15 September, 2014
First day of trading - First North Premier
This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Lauritz.com A/S via Globenewswire
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