Doughty Hanson celebrates Saft IPO

Doughty Hanson will return E133m to investors in Doughty Hanson & Co IV, following the IPO of battery manufacturer Saft on Euronext’s Eurolist. Based on the offer price of E26 per share, the market capitalisation of Saft was E485.3m.

Investors in Doughty Hanson & Co IV will have received E308m from Saft in total, representing around 2.6 x their equity investment. Doughty Hanson & Co returned E175m to investors through the repayment of debt following a recapitalisation of Saft in February 2005. The gross IRR to date on the investment is 122%.

Over 18% of Fund IV commitments have now been returned to investors on the Saft transaction alone.

Following the IPO, Doughty Hanson has retained a 42.5% shareholding in Saft (before exercise of the over-allotment option) and including this shareholding, the implied total return on Doughty Hanson’s equity investment in Saft is 4.25 x.

Doughty Hanson acquired Saft for E410m in January 2004, its first investment from Fund IV and also its first deal in France. The acquisition was financed through equity investment of E120m and E290m of debt.