A group of private equity investors has fizzed up liquidity in the shares of Rexel, the French electrical parts distributor, by means of two impressively large accelerated bookbuilds. Deutsche Bank was bookrunner to both.
Rexel, with sales of more than €13bn and a presence in 37 countries, is the world’s biggest supplier of electrical products to electricians, contractors and the wholesale and retail trade. In its lifetime, it has been through more different types of ownership than most. It was established via the merger of four companies in 1967 and listed on Paris’s Second Marché in 1983. A majority stake was bought by Pinault Printemps Redoute (PPR), the French retail conglomerate, in 1990. Fifteen years later, as PPR refocused on its luxury brands, it was the subject of a leveraged buyout.
