Imperial Brands raises £231m in Logista sell-down

Imperial Brands announced on Thursday that it has now agreed to sell 13.275 million ordinary shares of 20 euro cents each in Compañía De Distribución Integral Logista Holdings on the Madrid Stock Exchange, raising gross proceeds of £230.8m through the placing.

The FTSE 100 firm had initially announced its plan to sell down a minority stake in Logista on Wednesday, saying that it planned to use up to £160m of the placing proceeds to repurchase a maximum of 4.98 million ordinary shares.

Imperial said on Thursday that the proceeds of the placing were payable in cash on usual settlement terms, and completion of the placing was expected to occur on 11 September, subject to the satisfaction of “certain customary conditions”.

“Logista continues to perform strongly and we have taken this opportunity to realise further value from the business and use the proceeds to buy-back Imperial Brands shares and reduce net debt, underpinning our commitment to creating sustainable value for our shareholders,” Imperial Brands chief financial officer Oliver Tant had said on Wednesday.

“Our continued strong cash generation enables us to use a portion of the proceeds to buy-back our own shares, redeploying capital in an efficient manner.”

Tant pointed out that the board had said at its half year results that Imperial Brands would deliver a “stronger” second half performance, and he claimed that was being reflected in further improvements to its share trends and the “quality of growth” in many priority markets, as the company continued to step up investment behind its ‘growth and specialist brands’.

“We are delivering against our strategic priorities and remain focused on maintaining our growth momentum over the final weeks of the financial year.”

Following completion of the placing, Imperial Brands said it would indirectly hold 79,650,001 Logista shares, representing approximately 60% of its issued share capital.

As is customary in such transactions, Imperial Brands said it entered into a 90 day lock-up restriction from settlement on its remaining Logista shares, whereby it agreed not to dispose of any remaining shares without the consent of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs International.