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Thursday, 25th April 2024 |
| Anglo travels to France, UK and Germany to sell €750 million transaction |
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| Anglo travels to France, UK and Germany to sell €750 million transaction |
TTTThis was the first Tier 2 capital transaction Anglo had done since 2001 and the first sizeable capital deal we had done in Europe. It was critically also our chance to test our profile and the value of the investor calls we had been doing over the past few years with bond investors. It is central to the Anglo ethos to take a very proactive approach to investor development and to spend face time with investors, and it has always been our experience that this makes a real difference to the reception you receive when you come to raise capital at a future date.
Monday 7th June
The roadshow really began on the June bank holiday Monday at home in Drumcondra where a number of conference calls with investors had to be set up. These were a couple of key investors who were unable to meet us on the forthcoming roadshow but were keen to understand better the ‘Anglo story’. The real challenge here was not the investor questions but keeping the kids out of the room while the call was going on. The conference calls concluded with a call to the sales desk of our arranging banks and a question and answer session. That done, it was off to the airport for the Amsterdam flight.
Tuesday 8th June
The nature of the territory in The Netherlands is that the investor community is spread out with some accounts in Amsterdam, and others in The Hague and Utrecht, so a good driver and not too much traffic are perquisites to staying on schedule. Fortunately the stars were in our favour and we made each call in good time. The real sign of a positive meeting is a healthy exchange with plenty of questions and the Dutch investors were a perfect example of this.
The day finished with a very bumpy flight to Paris on a twin engine put-put arriving in the City of Light in time for a late supper with one of our arranging banks.
Wednesday 9th June
French investors have become increasingly important to Anglo in the last eighteen months on the back of our increasingly regular visits to Paris and their strong support for our fundraisings. The day begins with one-on-one meetings with key investors, followed by a lunch presentation to ten investors. The only downside to these lunch presentations is that you have to watch everybody eat their lunch while you try desperately to control the rumbling in your stomach. This was followed by another couple of one-on-ones and then off to the airport for the flight home. Unlike The Netherlands, French investors are all located in central Paris so it’s very much short hops from one meeting to the next, and easy to get in and out in a day. The benefit of the earlier calling programme is now very clear, with many investors already happy holders of our bonds and clearly very comfortable with Anglo.
Thursday 10th June
It might be easy to expect that every Dublin investor is fully up the curve on the progress at Anglo but we still believe it’s important to update investors and give them the chance to ask the questions that are important to them. It is also key that we are as transparent as possible and make a genuine effort to help investors understand what makes Anglo tick. In the end, over thirty investors turned up to our breakfast presentation which was fantastic.
Mid-morning it’s over to London to have a series of one-on-one meetings with a mixture of long standing supporters and some investors we hadn’t met before. London investors have been the most significant providers of debt capital and consequently we spend a lot of time with them and know each other very well.
Friday 11th June
The last leg of the roadshow was Frankfurt and a full day of meetings - again a combination of old friends and new investors to Anglo. Increasingly we are also seeing bond investors being joined at meetings by their equity analyst who covers the stock and this makes for a good contrast in approach. At this stage feedback coming through from investors we had met earlier in the week is very positive and we go into the weekend looking forward to ‘price talk’ on Monday. Fingers crossed for an order book which will build quickly.
All our best hopes come to pass during the following week, and on Wednesday, with orders of €900 million from ninety investors, we close the book. The deal is priced and we issue €750 million. The transaction was arranged by ABN AMRO, Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas, with Davy as co-lead manager. |
John Bowe is head of Debt Capital Markets at Anglo Irish Bank.
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| Article appeared in the September 2004 issue.
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