Carlyle Group tops 3x return on Axalta IPO in less than two years

Formerly called DuPont Performance Coatings, Axalta was carved out of DuPont by Carlyle in 2013.

Axalta priced its IPO at $19.50 a share, the middle of its $18 to $21 price range, and began trading Nov. 11 on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AXTA. In a sign of strong demand, the company increased the size of the IPO by 5 million shares to 50 million shares. The stock closed at $20.75 in its first day of trading.

Affiliates of Carlyle sold all the shares in the IPO for gross proceeds of $975 million. With about 229.1 million shares outstanding, Axalta’s market capitalization at its IPO price totaled $4.47 billion, more than three times Carlyle Group’s $1.36 billion in total consideration to buy the company, according to the IPO prospectus.

Carlyle paid $4.9 billion for DuPont Performance Coatings in February 2013. Industry veteran Charles Shaver, 55, became the company’s CEO and chairman at that time.

Since then, the global economy has continued its recovery, which may be fueling Axalta’s business.

The light vehicle end-market rang up an estimated $7.3 billion in 2013 global sales and is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of about 4.9 percent from 2013 to 2018, according to Orr & Boss figures cited by Axalta.

Light vehicle production growth is expected to be highest in emerging markets as original equipment manufacturers in those regions pursue plans to open 67 new assembly plants between 2014 and 2017, according to the prospectus.

Axalta said it expects to report a 16 percent to 19 percent increase in adjusted EBITDA to a range of $225.5 million to $230.5 million for the three months ended Sept 30, up from $194.1 million in the year-ago period. The company cited increased net sales, lower raw material costs and margin improvement efforts for the increase.