Sonae dismisses small investors from the placement of its retail business in the stock market

  • ECO News
  • 23 May 2018

Small investors will only be able to buy shares from Sonae's retail portfolio when the new company is listed in the Lisbon stock market.

Sonae chose its food retail and real estate property businesses as parts of its portfolio that will be listed in the Portuguese stock market by means of an IPO (Initial Public Offering). But the operation of placing the new company in the stock market is only meant for institutional investors. As for small investors, they will only be able to acquire shares from the new listed company of the Sonae group when it is already trading in the market.

According to the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios, Sonae should opt for a direct sale to institutional investors, which means that smaller investors will only be able to buy shares when the new company is officially listed in the Lisbon stock market.

A source contacted by the newspaper stated that “it is not certain that it will be a traditional IPO, because the company can choose a private placement”. Analysts agree with this perspective. “After having acknowledged a banking syndication, the operation should be made by means of a sale to institutional investors”, the analyst for Patris Investimentos, Albino Oliveira, stated.

This week, the company headed by Paulo Azevedo set the perimeter of that retail portfolio that might be placed in the stock market, which should fall on Sonae MC and Sonae RP, according to the press release sent to CMVM. The same is to say that food retail companies and the unit in charge of managing the retail real estate portfolio owned by Sonae.

On that same press release, Sonae stated it chose Barclays, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank to prepare the listing of the business in the Portuguese stock market.

The company wants to place its retail business in the market, but it will not give up control of the operations. At most, it will place 49% equity on the stock market, but the percentage to be placed is still up for discussion. Sources close to Sonae assure ECO that the retail area could get to the market for an amount close to two billion euros.