Avantor IPO swells to $3.33B after options exercised

Radnor-based chemical and laboratory products supplier Avantor closed its initial public stock offering, which swelled to $3.33 billion after underwriters exercised their full option to purchase additional shares to cover overallotments.

Avantor [NYSE: AVTR) ended up selling 238.05 million shares of common stock at $14 per share.

This year only Uber's $8.1 billion IPO, completed earlier this month, was larger.

Avantor, previously the specialty chemicals division of Covidien Inc., has its corporate headquarters in Radnor, Pa., and offices in Allentown. Two years ago, Avantor acquired lab products supplier VWR Corp., which was based in Radnor, in a deal valued at about $6.4 billion.

The company has a catalog of nearly 6 million chemicals, lab supplies and other materials it distributes to life sciences companies, educational and research institutions, government agencies, and the makers of applied materials in 180 countries worldwide.

Avantor also announced Thursday the closing of its concurrent public offering of 20.7 million shares of convertible preferred stock at $50 per share — which is expected to generate net proceeds of $4.24 billion after underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses are deducted.

The company used more than $2.6 billion in proceeds from the two offerings to redeem all outstanding shares of its Series A preferred stock, and another $1.6 billion to pay down debt.

Avantor’s common stock opened at $16.70 per share Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AVTR NYSE.”

Goldman Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan served as the joint book-running managers and as representatives of the underwriters for the offerings.

Article come from: https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2019/05/22/avantor-ipo-33b-radnor-chemicals-laboratory.html?ana=yahoo&yptr=yahoo