Banks picked for IPO of construction blocks maker Xella-sources

Owners Goldman Sachs and PAI Partners are bringing forward a planned stock market listing of their building materials business Xella and have picked banks to arrange the potential 2.5 billion euro ($2.8 billion) deal, two people familiar with the matter said.

The owners have hired Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas to organise the flotation, which is expected to take place as early as the fourth quarter of this year, the sources said on Tuesday.

Much like other private-equity investors encouraged by buoyant equities markets to list their assets, Xella's owners have decided that a 2015 IPO may reap a better result than a 2016 deal, which they had originally planned, they added.

Xella is targeting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of roughly 300 million euros ($337 million) in 2016 and it may be valued at 8-9 times this figure, the sources said.

French buyout group PAI, Goldman Sachs, BNP and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Building materials brands like Ytong, Hebel and Silka account for roughly two thirds of the business of the Duisburg, Germany, based group. Roughly 20 percent of its sales come from higher-margin lime and limestone businesses, which accounts for a third of the group's earnings.

Peers such as Austria's Wienerberger and Germany's Braas Monier trade at roughly 6 times their expected core earnings. ($1 = 0.8916 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Alexander Huebner; Editing by Ludwig Burger).

Source Reuters