(Reuters) -Thyssenkrupp and Industrie De Nora pushed ahead with the planned initial public offering (IPO) of their hydrogen joint venture Thyssenkrupp Nucera on Friday, setting the price range at the lower end of expectations.
The IPO will be the first in Germany since February, when shares in web hosting company IONOS debuted in Frankfurt, as stock market volatility and an uncertain economic outlook have put other company listings on the back-burner.
Nucera said up to 30.3 million shares will be offered to investors at a price between 19 euros ($20.76) and 21.50 euros, corresponding to gross proceeds of up to 566 million euros and a stock market value of as much as 2.7 billion euros.
This is at the lower end of 2 billion to 5 billion valuation range sources had forecast in April. People familiar with the matter had told Reuters earlier this week that Nucera was expected to be valued at more than 3 billion euros.
“We are on track and believe Thyssenkrupp Nucera is ready for the IPO with its attractive business model and technology for large-scale green hydrogen production,” Nucera CEO Werner Ponikwar said in a statement.
The company plans to put the proceeds into its electrolysis business.
The offer includes around 3.9 million existing shares to be sold by Thyssenkrupp and De Nora, which own Nucera in a 66:34 split. New shareholders will own around a quarter of Nucera following the IPO, while Thyssenkrupp will keep a majority.
Nucera, which engineers and builds electrolysers that are able to use electricity to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, said the offer period is expected to run from June 26 to July 5, with the first day of trading scheduled for July 7.
The fund subsidiary of BNP Paribas and Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund PIF have committed to subscribe to Nucera shares as cornerstone investors, while Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are acting as joint global coordinators for the transaction, it added.
($1 = 0.9152 euros)
(Reporting by Anna Mackenzie and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Kirsti Knolle, Christina Fincher, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alexander Smith)
