[1/2]ThyssenKrupp AG CEO Miguel Angel Lopez Borrego rings the opening bell during ThyssenKrupp Nucera’s IPO as ThyssenKrupp Nucera CEO Werner Ponikwar and ThyssenKrupp Nucera CFO Arno Pfannschmidt look on in Frankfurt, Germany, July 7, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
- Germany’s largest IPO in 2023
- Generates gross proceeds of EUR 526 million
- Equities gain up to 19.3%
FRANKFURT/LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Shares of hydrogen company Thyssenkrupp Nucera (NCH2.DE) soared in its Frankfurt IPO on Friday, Germany’s biggest IPO so far this year.
As an encouraging sign for the European capital markets, which were hit by market volatility in the first half of 2023, the shares even rose by 19.3% compared to their issue price of 20 euros.
They traded at 23 euros at 12:30 GMT, giving the joint venture between Germany’s Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) and Italy’s De Nora (DNR.MI) a market value of 2.9 billion euros ($3.2 billion). dollars).
Both companies remain shareholders of Nucera, with Thyssenkrupp owning 50.2% and De Nora 25.9%, while pre-IPO ownership splits were 66% and 34%.
“The IPO marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in our company’s history,” said Werner Ponikwar, CEO of Nucera, during the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, adding that the company will help “accelerate the adoption of green hydrogen “.
Thyssenkrupp and De Nora gained 4.4% and 3.1%, respectively.
Nucera, Thyssenkrupp and De Nora assume that the IPO will raise up to 605 million euros. This would make it the largest this year in Germany after the debut of the web hosting company IONOS (IOSn.DE) in February.
A wave of companies in Europe is rushing to go public ahead of the usual summer doldrums in IPO activity, which bankers hope will herald a stronger market recovery in the coming months.
Unlike most IPOs in Europe, Nucera is able to hold its shares in secondary trading, suggesting investors’ appetite for new issuance may be returning after skyrocketing interest rates nearly stalled the market over the last year.
The energy transition has been a theme in recent European IPOs, including Italy’s EuroGroup Laminations (EGLA.MI) and Romania’s Hidroelectrica.
“Although the company has yet to break even, investors have embraced the company’s technology and the strong growth prospects of its green hydrogen business,” said Christof Mürb, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), which together with Citi (CN ) took over Nucera’s IPO.
Although still in its infancy, so-called green hydrogen is being produced using renewable energy and is being touted as a potential path to a cleaner future for hard-to-decarbonize sectors.
Nucera offers technology to produce hydrogen using alkaline water electrolysis, the part of its business that attracts the most interest from investors due to its rapid scalability.
Nucera will receive €526 million in IPO proceeds to fund its international expansion in India, Japan, Australia and the United States, where the company is considering building its own electrolyser capacity, CFO Arno Pfannschmidt said.
The listing marks ThyssenKrupp’s latest attempt to streamline its conglomerate structure after carving out other areas of the group, such as its elevator and stainless steel businesses.
“This is a historic moment for Thyssenkrupp… It’s the first IPO by a Thyssenkrupp company ever,” CEO Miguel Lopez said of Nucera’s market debut.
($1 = 0.9182 euros)
Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Alexander Hübner in Frankfurt and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff; Adaptation by Miranda Murray, Mark Potter and Alexander Smith
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