UPDATE 1-Czech AAA Auto plans IPO for up to 44 mln euros

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By Jan Lopatka

Czech used car dealer AAA Auto said on Wednesday it planned an initial public offering in Prague and Budapest next month that would value the overall company as high as 156.5 million euros ($212.7 million).

AAA Auto Group NV, which has used-car dealerships in five central European countries, will issue as many as 17.76 million new shares plus up to 1.78 million shares in an overallotment option.

The maximum price has been set at 2.25 euros per share, the company said, confirming an earlier Reuters report. The IPO would raise up to 43.9 million euros.

The free-float will be up to 28.1 percent including the overallotment.

It will be the smallest stock on the main SPAD segment of the Prague Stock Exchange.

AAA is controlled by Australian-born founder Anthony James Denny, whose Czech family had emigrated. It claims to be the largest central European used car dealer. "By means of conducting an IPO, our group shall acquire the capital we need for business and development of new trading opportunities in our current markets ... as well as for our planned expansion to southern and eastern Europe," Denny said in a statement.

The offering is the first IPO in Prague this year, but investment bankers have said several more are in the pipeline and may be completed by December.

The IPO should be finished on Sept. 21, and the shares are expected to start trading in Prague on Sept. 24 and in Budapest on Sept. 26.

Prague-based Patria Finance is the lead manager, Belgium's KBC is co-lead.

AAA has been growing around the region and now has 33 dealerships in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Poland. It sold 61,939 cars last year and had revenue of 348.4 million euros.

The company expects net profit to rise 15 percent this year to 8 million euros.

Denny said the company planned to pay 20 percent of profits in dividends in the future.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]