(Bloomberg) — DSV A/S sold new shares for €5 billion ($5.5 billion) without resorting to a discount as a number of high-profile investors bought large stakes in the Danish freight-forwarding company.
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The accelerated bookbuilding process priced the shares at 1,410.50 kroner apiece, the same as Thursday’s close, the company said on Friday. That matched the high end of a range at which the stock was marketed by banks and the total amount raised also equaled the top end of estimates, which DSV gave on Sept. 13 to finance its €14.3 billion takeover of DB Schenker.
There was enough investor interest to cover the entire deal shortly after it launched. Demand for the shares exceeded the size of the deal by multiple times, a person familiar with the matter said. DSV shares rose as much as 9.3% at the open in Copenhagen on Friday, reaching 1,542 kroner, the highest since early 2022.
DSV, which has grown through a string of large acquisitions, has gained a reputation as a successful integrator of its targets and the Danish company’s stock has been rising past months on expectations it would land the DB Schenker deal.
The share sale came just one day after Deutsche Bahn AG’s supervisory board approved the divestment of its logistics unit, despite resistance from German labor unions and late attempts by a rival bidder to derail the deal.
DSV received cornerstone commitments for about 21 billion kroner ($3.1 billion) in aggregate, it said. Those included $1.1 billion from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Inc. Capital Group bought $700 million, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board committed €600 million and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund bought $400 million worth of stock.
BNP Paribas SA, Danske Bank A/S, HSBC Continental Europe, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Nordea Bank Abp helped DSV arrange the sale.
DSV, which has an A- credit grade, has also said it would tap the debt market for some of the financing. The deal will make DSV the world’s largest freight-forwarding company, doubling its labor force to almost 150,000 people, and turn it into Denmark’s second-largest company by revenue.
DSV, which is based outside of Copenhagen, also published preliminary third-quarter earnings on Thursday and raised the lower end of its 2024 profit guidance range.
–With assistance from Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Niclas Rolander.
(Updates with opening share price in third paragraph.)
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