Brazilian aluminum producer Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio, controlled by conglomerate Votorantim SA, has priced shares at 11.20 reais each in its initial public offering, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The price was below the range initially set by the company, between 14 and 18 reais. At 11.20 reais, the IPO is expected to raise around 1.4 billion reais ($270.51 million), without considering the sale of overallotments, which is still unclear.
The company, known as CBA, decided to cut the share price as demand was lower than expected, mainly from foreign investors, one of the sources said.
Even so, CBA was valued at five times its annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a common gauge of operational profitability known as EBITDA. Peers trade between three and four times their EBITDA, one of the sources added.
The IPO valued CBA at 6.7 billion reais ($1.3 billion), and the company is expected to debut on Brazil’s stock exchange on Thursday under the ticker CBAV3.
CBA will use the proceeds of the primary portion of the offering to fund organic expansion and acquisitions, according to the prospectus. Votorantim also sold a roughly 25% stake in the company in the offering.
Founded in the 1940s, CBA owns bauxite mines in Brazil and has capacity to process 400,000 tonnes of primary aluminum a year.
The IPO was managed by investment banking units of Bank of America, Banco Bradesco, UBS BB, Citi, XP and Banco BTG Pactual.
(By Carolina Mandl and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Marguerita Choy)
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