Denmark’s Falck To Launch IPO Within Week

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish ambulance and rescue services group Falck will announce details of its planned public offering of stock within a week, ahead of a listing by fellow Danish company Chr Hansen, sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday. Falck said on April 22 it was exploring a stock offering and listing on the Copenhagen stock exchange and had hired investment bankers to run the sale.

Some analysts have estimated Falck could be worth between 9 billion and 10 billion Danish crowns ($1.57 billion – $1.74 billion), which would likely make the sale the biggest public stock offering in Denmark since 2005.

A source told Reuters Falck would disclose the size and pricing of its offer within a week and added that it would be a sale of existing shares held by private equity firm Nordic Capital and Danish pension group ATP’s Private Equity Partners unit.

Another source confirmed the announcement would come within a week.

Danish food ingredients company Chr Hansen said on April 26 that it aimed to raise around 450 million euros ($583.7 million) through an IPO to secure conditions for future growth. [ID:nLDE63P0EM]

But sources familiar with the deals said that Falck was ahead of Chr Hansen in the queue.

“There is a process under way where analysts are meeting potential investors, and one does not want to go out (with a Chr Hansen sale) at the same time as Falck,” one source said.

“So it will be at least one to two weeks before a prospectus and further details are published,” the source familiar with the Chr Hansen IPO process said.

For both firms, listing means rejoining the Copenhagen bourse as both were delisted in 2005 after private equity buyouts. (Reporting by Peter Levring and Ole Mikkelsen; Editing by Louise Heavens)