Apollo continues to trim stake in Australia's Ventia

Apollo sold 88.4m shares, reducing its holding to 4.32%, while fellow shareholder CIMIC Group, an Australian construction contractor, pared its holding to 7.35% by offloading 62.5m shares, according to a filing. The stock closed at AUD 2.72 on September 5, the day following the disclosure, giving Ventia a market capitalisation of AUD 2.26bn.

Based on the September 4 closing price, Apollo generated AUD 240m from the partial exit. It follows the sale of 61.9m shares in May, for around AUD 157m, and 93m shares in March, which delivered AUD 215m, based on pricing at the time. Each partial exit has happened in tandem with a sale by CIMIC.

Ventia was formed as a 50-50 joint venture comprising Leighton Contractors Services and Theiss Services, with Apollo owning half the business. Leighton generated cash proceeds of around AUD 700m from selling its position to Apollo. At the time, Apollo’s investment valued the combined assets at approximately AUD 1bn.

This was one of numerous private equity deals in Australia that targeted distressed mining services companies. Leighton sought to divest multiple assets after a downturn in the commodities cycle ate into operating profit and left the company with a heavy debt burden.

Ventia went public in 2021. Apollo reduced its interest from 47.1% to 32.8% through the IPO, taking about AUD 40m off the table. It sold no further shares until earlier this year.

Ventia is an infrastructure services provider that operates across Australia and New Zealand, serving customers in defence, social infrastructure, water, electricity and gas, industrial and resources, environmental services, telecom, and transport. IT employs more than 35,000 people across over 400 project sites.

Revenue reached AUD 5.17bn for the 12 months ended June 2022, up 13.4% year-on-year. Over the same period, EBITDA rose 10.5% to AUD 419.8m and net profit increased 22.4% to AUD 179.6m.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Open market
• Infrastructure
• Support services
• Australia
• Apollo Global Management