Fund Distributor Allfunds Is Seeking an IPO in Amsterdam

(Bloomberg) -- Fund-distribution business Allfunds, which is owned by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC, plans an initial public offering in Amsterdam, adding to the Dutch city’s growing clout as a listing venue for European issuers.

Shareholders are looking to sell at least 25% of the firm’s shares in the offering, Allfunds said in a statement on Wednesday. The company won’t raise any money from the share sale.

The company is seeking a valuation of 7 billion euros ($8.3 billion) to 8 billion euros, according to a person familiar with the transaction. The private equity firm, which has owned Allfunds since 2017, has expanded the business through a series of acquisitions, including a purchase of Credit Suisse Group AG’s InvestLab platform.

Allfunds had more than 1.2 trillion euros of assets under administration as of the end of 2020, according to the statement. The business sits between fund houses and banks, helping asset managers distribute their products while allowing lenders to increase the breadth of offerings to their customers.

This listing provides the company “with the flexibility to accelerate the digital transformation of the wealth management industry” and the growth of its global platform, Juan Alcaraz, its founder and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

Alcaraz was previously at Banco Santander SA, which created Allfunds in 2000 to help financial institutions get access to open architecture funds. The IPO will likely be the largest by a Spanish company in years, although it isn’t tapping its home exchange.

Since dislodging London as the continent’s top place to buy and sell shares following Brexit, Amsterdam has emerged as a venue of choice for new listings. The Dutch capital recorded its best-ever first quarter with $5.7 billion of proceeds after the 2.8 billion-euro listing of Polish parcel locker firm InPost SA, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has also become the premier destination for blank-check listings in Europe, hosting three of six such deals in the region over the past year.

BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley are joint global coordinators on the offering. Rothschild & Co. is the company’s IPO adviser. Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc, CaixaBank SA, HSBC Holdings Plc, ING Groep NV, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Banco Santander SA are joint bookrunners.

Selling shareholders include Hellman & Friedman, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse, according to the statement.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.