(News Bulletin 247) – The public investment bank announced on Friday the sale of 2.5% of the capital of the cable manufacturer as part of a private placement. This brings Bpifrance’s stake to just over 5% in Nexans.

Bpifrance has given up a little on Nexans. The public investment bank announced on Friday that it had sold 2.5% of the capital of the cable manufacturer as part of a private placement by way of accelerated construction of an order book reserved for qualified investors.

This sale operation involved 1.09 million Nexans shares for a total amount of approximately 125 million euros. On the basis of this information and after a quick calculation, the placement therefore results in a price per share of 114.68 euros, which reflects a discount of 2.15% compared to Thursday’s closing price of 117.20 euros. .

A title logically under pressure

Following these announcements, Nexans shares logically found themselves under pressure on the Paris Stock Exchange. The stock lost 3.1% around 12:20 p.m., with the stock trading below the investment discount. This happens regularly and almost automatically when investors sell blocks of shares of a listed group as part of a private placement.

Following the transaction, Bpifrance holds 5.2% of the share capital of Nexans and will retain its representative on the board of directors. The public investment bank has also undertaken to retain its entire residual stake for a period of 180 days, “subject to certain customary exceptions”.

The operation announced this Friday “is part of dynamic management of Bpifrance’s portfolio and will allow it to finance the development of other companies.” In other words, the public investment bank has seized an interesting window of opportunity to sell part of its shares in the cable company.

A third strategic plan

It must be said that as of Thursday’s close, Nexans has gained nearly 48% since the start of the year and more than 60% over one year, significantly outperforming its benchmark index, the SBF 120 which is in decline. by 3.2% in 2024 and only gains 1.4% over one year. The group, however, saw its lead on the stock market narrow after announcing disappointing activity in the third quarter at the end of October. The group also suffered on the stock market after the election of Donald Trump, since Nexans was identified as a company likely to be penalized by the hostile tone adopted by the future tenant of the White House on renewable energies.

The American president-elect has repeatedly declared that he has offshore wind power in his sights. However, specialists in this segment, such as the Danish Orsted, are Nexans clients.

But in an interview with Les Echos published this Wednesday, Christopher Guérin wanted to be reassuring: “our offshore wind contracts in the United States represent 6% of our total order book of 6 billion euros”.

Despite these headwinds that have presented themselves to Nexans in recent weeks, the company is still considered by investors as one of the leading stocks to play the energy transition within the world of cables.

Particularly since Christopher Guérin, at the helm of the group since 2018, put into music two strategic plans aimed at relaunching Nexans, and transforming it into a “pure-player” in electrification. And the results so far are rather flattering. Between 2018 and 2024, adjusted gross operating income (Ebitda) increased 2.5-fold and the cable manufacturer’s market capitalization increased almost six-fold.

But Nexans’ transformation is not completely complete. And this was the subject of the third strategic plan unveiled by the group on Wednesday which sets out Nexans’ ambitions for 2028. The cable specialist will amplify its efforts in electrification by, for example, using technology and intelligence artificial. The company estimates that it will be able to generate an adjusted Ebitda of 1.150 billion euros by 2028 compared to 750 million to 800 million euros targeted this year.

On this subject, Bpifrance indicated this Friday that it would continue “to actively support the Nexans management team in pursuing its value creation strategy” detailed in the strategic plan announced on Wednesday. The public investment bank also confirmed its intention to remain a key shareholder and long-term partner of the company, which it has supported for more than 15 years.