Thyssenkrupp targets June window for Nucera IPO attempt - sources
05/04/2023 15:29
By Christoph Steitz and Emma-Victoria Farr
FRANKFURT, April 5 (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp TKAG.DE
may pick June to list its hydrogen business Nucera, provided
equity markets are robust, three people familiar with the matter
said, in what could be a multi-billion euro initial public
offering.
Plans to list Nucera, a 66%-34% joint venture between
Thyssenkrupp and Italy's De Nora DNR.MI , were put on the
backburner last year due to unfavourable market conditions
following the war in Ukraine and subsequent energy crisis.
Nucera makes the electrolysers that are needed to produce
green hydrogen - a sector that is currently benefiting from the
U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and European Union initiatives to
support the green energy transition.
Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Martina Merz, under pressure to
deliver on her pledge to turn the sprawling conglomerate into a
leaner and more focused holding, said last month that the group
would make a new effort to list Nucera, without elaborating.
Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.
There has been no final decision on timing, and any listing
depends on the market environment, the people said, adding
conditions for an IPO of Nucera had improved overall.
The business could be valued anywhere between 2 billion
euros ($2.2 billion) and as much as 5 billion euros if forward
sales multiples of rivals Nel NEL.OL and ITM Power ITM.L are
applied, the people said.
However, there are wide differences in valuations,
highlighting how difficult it is to put a price tag on such an
emerging technology.
When plans for a listing of the business were first
communicated in 2021, analysts valued Nucera at between 3
billion and 6 billion euros.
Recent estimates from Credit Suisse and Bank of America,
suggest a more modest valuation of 450 million to 1.1 billion
euros.
While the market environment is still not ideal for
listings, it has improved markedly since last year, when
investors shunned IPOs except for a few outliers, most notably
Porsche P911_p.DE .
Nucera's co-owner De Nora, also managed to successfully list
in June 2022, and its good run is driving optimism that a
listing of the joint venture has a better chance of succeeding
this time around, two of the people said, who declined to be
named because they are not authorised to speak on the matter.
Shares in De Nora, a leading manufacturer of electrodes for
devices such as rechargeable batteries as well as components to
produce green hydrogen, are up around a third since its stock
market debut and have gained nearly a quarter this year alone.
($1 = 0.9131 euros)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Emma-Victoria Farr; Editing
by Miranda Murray and Sharon Singleton)
((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 647;))