Homburger advised gategroup on its IPO on SIX Swiss Exchange

On March 14, 2018, gategroup Holding AG (gategroup), a global leader in airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services domiciled in Glattbrugg, Switzerland, announced the launch of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on SIX Swiss Exchange, the publication of the Offering Memorandum and the start of the bookbuilding process. The IPO comprises a primary offering of up to 21,875,000 shares to be newly issued, a secondary offering of 54,220,000 existing shares to be sold by the selling shareholder, a HNA Group entity, and an additional up to 7,609,500 existing shares to cover an over-allotment option granted to the underwriters. The expected market capitalization of the company following the IPO is CHF 2,064 m to CHF 2,618 m. The first trading day is anticipated to be March 27, 2018.

Measured by revenues, gategroup is the world’s largest provider of airline catering, retail-on-board and hospitality products and services. Headquartered in Glattbrugg, Switzerland, gategroup delivers operational excellence through its extensive catering network, serving more than 700 million passengers per year from over 200 operating units located in 60 countries expanding across all continents. In 2017, gategroup generated CHF 4.6 bn in revenues and had 42,500 employees.

gategroup was advised on this IPO by Homburger. The Homburger team was led by partners Frank Gerhard and Daniel Daeniker (both Corporate / M&A) and included associates Lorenzo Togni and Mario Wälti (both Corporate / M&A) and junior associate Claude Humbel (Corporate / M&A). Partner Stefan Oesterhelt (Tax) provided tax advice.