VolkerWessels IPO raises €575m
VolkerWessels raised €575m through its initial public offering on the Amsterdam stock exchange on Friday morning, public broadcaster NOS reported.
The country’s second-largest construction company had been fully owned by the Wessels family. Roughly one-third of its shares were launched on Friday at €23 per share.
There was tepid demand for the shares, which rose by only 2% in initial trade. This values the entire group at more than €1.8bn.
The Wessels family is divesting shares in order to diversify its portfolio.
Their company was listed on the Amsterdam bourse until 2003 when then chairman Dik Wessels bought back the remaining shares because he thought they were undervalued. The move cost Wessels about €700m at the time.
Friday’s IPO means that Dik Wessels, who is 71, remains the second-richest man in the Netherlands, after Frits Goldschmeding, who founded temps agency Randstad.
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