Italian spirits group Campari has raised €1.2 billion through the sale of new shares as well as debt that can convert into equity to fund last month's buy of historic French cognac house Courvoisier.
Campari said it had taken advantage of favourable market conditions as it joined a rush of issuance since the start of the year.
Courvoisier's €1.1 billion acquisition is Campari's biggest to date, following deals that included the 2016 acquisition of Grand Marnier and the 2022 purchase of Kentucky's Wilderness Trail Bourbon and Rye Whiskey.
It sold new shares at €9.33 each, offering a 6% discount towards Tuesday's (9 January 2024) closing price and gathering orders through an accelerated book-building procedure.
Shares in Campari fell by more than 5% in early trade, making them the worst performer in percentage terms on the pan-European STOXX 600 index.
It also privately placed with investors senior debt which Campari can opt to repay, when it expires in January 2029, by handing investors shares in the company.
Conversion Price
Campari set the conversion price for the €550 million bond at €12.4 a share, representing a premium of 32.5% compared to the price at which it issued the new shares.
Each debt note converts into 8.09 shares. Campari said some of the investors in the bond had hedged their risks by short-selling other Campari shares.
The company will use proceeds from the fundraising for the Courvoisier deal as well general corporate purposes, it said, while improving the group's capital structure by cutting debt and extending its average maturity.
The new shares account for 5.6% of Campari's capital while the bond, if converted, would account for another 3.6% of capital.
BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, Crédit Agricole CIB, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca managed the transactions, Campari said.
