By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Sergio Goncalves
LONDON/LISBON (Reuters) - Fidelidade is set to raise at least 300 million euros ($330 million) by selling a minority stake in its healthcare arm Luz Saude, two people familiar with the matter said, in what could be Portugal's biggest initial public offering (IPO) in a decade.
The insurer, backed by China's Fosun International, is pondering whether to sell any new shares as part of the offering to help expedite Luz Saude's growth, said the people, who requested anonymity as deliberations are private.
It aims to launch the IPO this year or in the first half of 2024, depending on market conditions, with Euronext Lisbon as the preferred listing venue, the people said.
A deal would help to heal Europe's bruised IPO market, although rising interest rates and economic uncertainty make the path to a listing uncertain. No final decisions have been made, and plans could yet be altered or dropped, the people added.
Fidelidade declined to comment. Luz Saude and Fosun did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters first reported last month that Fidelidade was sounding out banks to manage a stock market listing of Luz Saude that could value the company around 1 billion euros, despite sluggish IPO markets.
The insurance group has since appointed Citigroup (NYSE:C) and UBS as global coordinators and Portugal's Caixa Banco de Investimento as joint bookrunner, the people said.
It is in advanced discussions to draft local lender Millennium BCP and Germany's Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe - both also backed by Fosun - as co-lead managers, they said, adding further banks may still join the syndicate.
U.S. corporate finance house Evercore is Fidelidade's financial adviser, one of the people added.
Evercore and UBS declined to comment. The remaining banks did not respond to a request for comment.
For Portugal, whose main bourse has not seen any new listings since 2021, a return of Luz Saude to the stock exchange would be a major win, making it the biggest domestic flotation since Correios de Portugal in 2013.
Local lender Novo Banco, backed by investment manager Lone Star, has also voiced an ambition to go public in the medium term.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)