Refile: UPDATE 1-Software company SUSE holds own in Frankfurt debut
19/05/2021 09:24
(Capitalises spelling of CEO's family name)
By Arno Schuetze and Douglas Busvine
FRANKFURT, May 19 (Reuters) - Shares in enterprise software
company SUSE SUSEG.DE held their own in a Frankfurt stock
market debut on Wednesday, climbing just above their 30 euro
issue price, giving the group a market cap of around 5 billion
euros ($6.1 billion).
Nuremberg-based SUSE had priced the deal towards the lower
end of a 29 to 34 euros per share range with a view to securing
a solid aftermarket performance, after volatile markets derailed
a number of other European flotations.
CEO Melissa Di Donato, the first woman to lead a
high-profile initial public offering in Frankfurt, rang the
opening bell in a video message showing images of cheering team
members projected on to a screen behind her.
"This is the start of an incredible journey," said the
American veteran of SAP SAPG.DE , who was hired by private
equity investor EQT two years ago and has her sights set on
sustaining double-digit growth. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2MS4LD
SUSE provides open-source software for companies to run
applications at cloud datacenters, on-premise servers, mainframe
computers and devices at the edges of networks, making it a play
on digital transformation.
The company, founded three decades ago, runs on the Linux
open source standard and counts 60% of the U.S. Fortune 500
companies among its customers.
The IPO adds to a busy Frankfurt season, following the $10
billion listing by German used-car trading platform AUTO1
AG1G.DE , a $14 billion debut by Vodafone's Vantage Towers
VTWRn.DE and the $5 billion IPO of labs group Synlab.
While these deals have proved good bets for investors, other
European tech listings, such as Deliveroo ROO.L and Alphawave
AWE.L have disappointed. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2LT22N urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2N01JY
Sentiment has also been dampened by Trustly's and Meinauto's
cancellations of their IPO plans earlier this month.
"All of this has had a major impact on investors' risk
appetite and their ability to put money into new tech
transactions," said one equity capital markets banker.
Companies have to choose between putting off IPO plans and
risk a potential repricing of the technology sector as
investors' inflation worries return, or move more quickly and
take a chance on investors' mood.
In the SUSE transaction, Europe's largest software IPO of
the year, a total of 37.8 million shares were sold for 1.1
billion euros.
The company is issuing new shares to help pay down debt,
while owner EQT is also selling down its stake.
EQT will remain the company's largest shareholder with a
stake of 77.6%. It acquired SUSE in 2018 for $2.5 billion and
stands to double its money via the IPO.
($1 = 0.8173 euros)
($1 = 0.8174 euros)
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze
Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Jane Merriman)
((arno.schuetze@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30220133648;))