CVC plans to list Danish retailer Matas within weeks

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish retailer Matas will be launched on the stock market by its private equity backers within a few weeks, two people familiar with the matter said, in what would be Denmark's first new listing in two years.

CVC Capital Partners paid 5.2 billion Danish crowns ($904.55 million) in 2007 for a 66 percent stake in Matas, which has 296 stores throughout Denmark and Sweden selling beauty products, vitamins, dietary supplements and non-prescription medicines.

Nordea, SEB, and Morgan Stanley are working as advisors on the planned flotation, the two sources said on Thursday.

"They are working on the prospectus now," one source said.

The other person, an institutional investor in Copenhagen who did not want to be identified, said the banks will start holding meetings with investors next week and a listing on Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen could happen before July 1.

Danske Bank and Carnegie are also working on the offering, the investor said.

Copenhagen has not hosted an initial public offering since Danske Andelskassers Bank in July 2011. Its last big stock market debut was the 2010 launch of jewellery maker Pandora, whose shares dropped 80 percent within a year as it ran into difficulty with a move into more expensive jewellery.

Before CVC bought the chain, Matas was run as a cooperative with each store owned and managed individually. Former store owners still hold a 28.6 percent stake in the business, while company management own around 5 percent.

Revenue in the full year ending March 31 was 3.1 billion Danish crowns. Profit after tax was 219 million Danish crowns.

A spokesman for CVC Capital Partners, a more than 30-year old private equity firm which employs 270 staff across Europe, Asia and the United States, declined to comment on plans for an initial public offering.