Forterra Gears Up for IPO

September 23, 2016 by Chris Lange

Forterra has filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No terms were given in the filing, but the offering is valued up to $100 million, although this number is usually just a placeholder. The company intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol FRTA.

The underwriters for the offering are Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse.

This is a leading manufacturer of pipe and precast products by sales volume in the United States and Eastern Canada for a variety of water-related infrastructure applications, including water transmission, distribution and drainage.

Forterra provides critical infrastructure components for a broad spectrum of construction projects across residential, nonresidential and infrastructure markets. Its extensive suite of end-to-end products covers “the First Mile to the Last Mile” of the water infrastructure grid, ranging from large diameter pipe that transports water to and from treatment centers and manages drainage along major transportation corridors, to smaller diameter pipe that delivers potable water to, and removes wastewater from, end users in residential and commercial settings.

The company employs a specialized technical sales force, including engineers and field service representatives, which enables it to deliver a high degree of customer service, create tailored solutions and ensure products meet project specifications to maximize applications in the field. Its product breadth, footprint in the United States and Eastern Canada and significant scale help make Forterra a one-stop shop for water-related pipe and products, and a preferred supplier to a wide variety of customers, including contractors, distributors and municipalities.

In the filing, Forterra outlined its financial position as follows:

For the Predecessor period from January 1, 2015 to March 13, 2015, we generated net sales of $132.6 million, a net loss of $5.8 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $3.3 million, and for the Successor period from March 14, 2015 to December 31, 2015, we generated net sales of $722.7 million, a net loss of $82.8 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $60.2 million. In 2015, we generated pro forma net sales of $1,663.4 million, pro forma loss from continuing operations of $97.3 million and pro forma Adjusted EBITDA of $187.1 million.

Forterra intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay its indebtedness, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

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