Nets IPO price values payment firm at up to $4.8 billion

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark-based card payment services company Nets A/S on Tuesday set an indicative price range for its planned initial public offering (IPO) indicating a market value of 26 billion to 32 billion Danish crowns ($3.92-$4.83 billion).

Nets, which owns the most used debit card in Denmark, Dankort, said it expects to price the shares at 130-160 Danish crowns per share when it lists on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange on Sept. 27.

Scandinavia's largest payments processor It will offer 40 to 60 percent of its total share capital, including up to 42.3 million new shares that will raise proceeds of about 5.5 billion crowns, the company said.

An IPO has been on the cards since its 17-billion-crown acquisition by private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital and Danish pension fund ATP in March 2014.

"There is clearly a real appreciation of the transformation Nets has undergone in the past two years," Chief Executive Bo Nilsson said in a statement.

British payments processor Worldpay Group listed on the London Stock Exchange in October last year with a valuation of 4.8 billion pounds ($6.34 billion).

Existing shareholders in Nets will sell between 37.7 million and 70.6 million of their shares.

Managers at the company have been granted an overallotment option of up to 15.75 million shares, Nets said.

The offer period starts Sept. 13 and ends Sept. 26, but may be closed as early as Sept 22, Nets said.

Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Nordea have been appointed to act as joint global co-ordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO.

The IPO comes despite a troubled period for the Danish IPO market, which was rocked by the bankruptcy of ship fuel supplier OW Bunker seven months after its shares were listed in 2014.

Nets this month reported a 13 percent rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before special items (EBITDA) to 1.2 billion Danish crowns for the first six months of 2016 corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 33.4 percent.

(Additional reporting by Annabella Pultz Nielsen; editing by Louise Heavens and Jason Neely)