Private-equity owners of AA Ltd to sell company to investor group

The private-equity owners of UK roadside-assistance provider AA Ltd intend to sell the company to an investor group as part of an initial public offering that would value it at £1.4 billion, Bloomberg reported.

AA, owned by Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP, CVC Capital Partners Ltd and Permira Advisers LLP, would be sold to a group that included Bob Mackenzie, former chairman of National Car Parks, and AA management, according to a statement today.

The investors include GLG Partners, Invesco Corp and Henderson Group Plc, according to the company.

Investors had become more selective in what they bought as London had its busiest year in terms of IPOs since 2007. Saga Plc, a provider of insurance and holidays to the UK's over-50s that had the same private-equity owners as AA, priced its May IPO at the bottom of the range and shares had fallen 4 per cent since.

According to a statement, AA's sale comprised 554 million new shares as also existing shares offered at 250 pence apiece. AA which had received £930 million worth of orders from institutional investors, had planned its IPO for the second half of the year.

The flotation would see the group's private equity owner, Acromas Holdings, the parent company for the merged Automobile Association and Saga Group, sell the business to a group of 11 cornerstone investors who had agreed to the acquisition of £930 million of the company's shares, The Telegraph reported.

The company would then be taken public, leaving the investors with 69 per cent of the UK's biggest car insurer.

The cornerstone investors listed are Aviva, Blackrock, Capital, GLG Partners, Henderson Global, Henderson Volantis, Invesco, L&G and Lansdowne Partners.

The accelerated IPO would see the AA motor overtake the roadside recovery rival the RAC who yesterday was understood to have hired bankers at Barclays and Goldman Sachs to advise it on options for itd future, and according to commentators a listing would be the most likely outcome.

They add, with RAC further behind its IPO preparations than AA, its owner Carlyle would hope investors still had enough interest in the business.