The Spanish capital markets showed signs of improving last month as US firms Mayer Brown and Davis Polk & Wardwell won roles advising the world’s largest airport operator Aena on its €4.3bn float on the Madrid stock exchange.
The Spanish government’s disposal of its 49% stake in Aena, which operates some 47 airports worldwide, including Luton, gave the group a total equity value of up to €8.7bn. In what is the largest flotation on the Madrid stock market since the onset of the financial crisis, the value underscores the burgeoning confidence among investors about Spain’s rejuvenated capital markets and economy, and heralds a surge of new mandates for corporate and finance lawyers working in the country.
Mayer Brown’s London-based banking and finance partner Robert Flanigan advised Aena, alongside partner George Baptista out of New York, while local firm Pérez-Llorca Abogados’ capital markets head Vicente Conde also advised the airport operator. Madrid-based corporate partner Michael Willisch at Davis Polk advised the underwriters, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with Uría Menéndez corporate partner Alfonso Ventoso also acting.
Aena had originally intended to float in the fourth quarter of 2014, however the IPO was put on hold after the Spanish government decided to re-appoint an auditor through a public tender process. The delay worked well for the government, which at the end of 2014 was expecting to raise around €3.8bn.
‘The transaction has been very successful and was re-priced twice, and is now trading more than 20% above what the offering price was,’ said Flanigan. ‘Last year was a very strong year for IPOs in Spain, especially the first half. Then, as markets got unsettled with Greece, Ukraine and other issues, most of the transactions for the fall were pulled. Only one big offering went through.’
According to Flanigan, there is a significant backlog of transactions that will come to market, with around ten due to float in the first half of 2015. One of the biggest will see Spanish infrastructure company Abertis spin off its terrestrial telecoms business, Abertis Telecom, in a float worth $18bn.
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk