Amadeus’s shares fall after shareholders sell out

Amadeus, the Spanish travel reservation company, saw its share price fall 4.4 percent by 1110 GMT on Friday, according to Reuters, after core shareholders raised 617 million euros ($863 million) by placing a 10.2 percent stake in the company. Private equity firms BC Partners and Cinven both sold 4.4 percent stakes while airline Iberia sold a 1.5 percent stake, the timing of which surprised the markets.

(Reuters) – Spanish travel reservation company Amadeus’s shares fell after core shareholders raised 617 million euros ($863 million) by placing a 10.2 percent stake on Friday following a strong performance since an April listing.

The shares were placed at 13.50 euros, compared with Thursday’s closing price of 13.87 euros and the company’s 11 euro flotation price.

Amadeus shares were down 4.4 percent at 1110 GMT.

Private equity firms BC Partners [BCPRT.UL] and Cinven [CINV.UL] both sold 4.4 percent stakes while airline Iberia sold a 1.5 percent stake, said the bookrunners — Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.

An analyst at brokerage BPI said the stake sale was not unexpected but the timing was a surprise given the investors had agreed not to sell shares until the end of October. Amadeus must have agreed to waive that lock-in, the analyst said.

Amadeus returned to the Spanish stock exchange in April, raising over 1.3 billion euros and giving it a market capitalisation of around 5 billion euros at the 11 euro listing price. The company was delisted by Cinven and BC Partners in a leveraged buy-out five years ago.
(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett and Robert Hetz; Editing by Erica Billingham)