BancBoston sells Kongsberg shares

BancBoston Capital has sold more of its shares in Kongsberg Automative, a Norwegian maker of car parts which listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in June 2005.

BancBoston has sold 94% of its stock in total, through a May private placement and via secondary and greenshoe offerings following the IPO. The firm has made a significant return from the flotation. With the share price currently around NOK50, up from its offer price of NOK46, this represents a return of 7.4x and an IRR of 66%.

Industri Kapital took Kongsberg private in 1999 and acquired a 77% stake in the business, with BancBoston taking 15%. In August 2001 IK sold its stake to FSN Capital, a Norwegian buyout house.