Page 15 - bne magazine September 2023

bne September 2023 Companies & Markets I 15
bne:Funds
Czech cyanide maker Draslovka in talks on potential IPO
bne IntelliNews
The world’s largest producer of sodium cyanide, Czech Draslovka, is talking to banks about a possible stock market entry, seeking an underwriter for an initial public offering (IPO), Reuters reported citing three anonymous sources familiar with the developments.
The IPO venue has yet to be decided, with London being one of the possibilities. Draslovka’s CEO Pavel Bruzek Jr. told Reuters in June that the company is working with JPMorgan to secure additional funds.
“As has been previously disclosed, Draslovka’s international growth strategy requires capital, and an IPO is being considered as one of our options,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters, adding that an ongoing “dialogue with financial advisors” is taking place.
The company’s evaluation could be in the billions of dollars by the time it lists, which could be early next year if any of the plans go ahead.
Sodium cyanide is used to extract metals from ores. The site where Draslovka has its factory, has been home to chemical factories since before WWII. Previously a German-run factory at the same location produced other chemicals used in mining and agriculture, including the notorious Zyklon B. The gas was widely used as a rat poison and to delouse clothes, but was used in Nazi-era concentration camps to murder mostly Jewish prisoners.
A spokesman for Draslovka told bne IntelliNews that the German factory was destroyed in the war by Allied bombs and later rebuilt on the same site during Czech communist times. However, there is no legal connection between the German run factory and Draslovka, which are entirely different entities. Moreover, there is no documentary evidence that any Zyklon B from the former German-run factory was used in the Nazi death camps, but there is plenty of evidence that shows other German- run factories supplied Zyklon B to the concentration camps.
Based in Kolin, Central Bohemia, the factory was privatised in the 1990s after a period of nationalisation during the communist era in then Czechoslovakia and acquired by the Bruzek family in 1996. Draslovka Holding BV became a 100% shareholder.
Reuters noted that last year the company sold $150mn (€136mn) of preferred stock to American fund Oaktree Capital Management and embarked on an acquisition spree, boosting the company’s revenue by 286% to $468mn, but recorded a 13% drop in Ebitda to $77mn in 2022.
The company is targeting an Ebitda of around $400mn within the next five years.
Addendum: a previous version of this story said that Draslovka was making Zyklon B at the same site before and during WWII, which was incorrect. Draslovka has no connection to the pre-war German-run factory whatsoever.
Photo: www.ctk.cz
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