Applegreen PLC acquired a majority stake in Welcome Break for a consideration of €362m

Goodbody acted as financial adviser, ESM adviser, joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner for the acquisition and the associated equity fundraising of €175m

Applegreen is a major petrol forecourt retailer with operations in Ireland, the UK and the US.  Applegreen is a publicly traded company with listings in Dublin and London with a market cap of €558m. Welcome Break operates a portfolio of Motorway Service Areas and hotels across 35 locations in the UK with c.85m annual customers, revenues of £723m and adjusted EBITDA of £66m in the year to January 2018

The equity fundraising was significantly oversubscribed at the placing price of €6.08 which represents a zero percent discount to previous close. As a result of the oversubscription, the quantum of the equity placing was upsized from €100m through €140m and €160m to the final deal size of €175m representing c.31% of pre-deal market capitalisation and c.60% of pre-deal freefloat.

 

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