Bain Capital’s Atento seeks IPO valuation of up to $1.6 bln

At the top end of the expected price range, the IPO is likely to raise about $321.8 million, sister news service Reuters reported.

Bain Capital bought Atento Group from Telefonica SA , Europe’s biggest telecom operator by revenue, in 2012 for about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), including debt. In the offering of about 14.6 million shares, Atento is selling 4.1 million shares and stockholder Atalaya PikCo SCA the rest.

Bain Capital’s stake in Atento will drop to 75.3 percent from 98.2 percent if the underwriters fully exercise their option. Atento, which runs help desks, back offices and other service desks, has about 153,000 employees, with about half of them in Brazil. The company was formed in 1999 as a spinoff of Telefonica’s call center business in Spain, Peru and Chile.

Atento’s loss attributable to shareholders widened to $24.3 million in the six months ended June from $23.1 million, a year earlier. Revenue dropped about 1.2 percent to $1.15 billion.

Avik Das is a correspondent for Reuters in Bangalore.