By Alexander Hübner
MUNICH (Reuters) -German prosthetics company Ottobock expects a market valuation of up to $4.9 billion from its planned initial public offering (IPO), the company said on Monday.
The world’s largest manufacturer of artificial limbs said that up to 12.35 million shares would be offered at a price range of 62-66 euros per share and that the offer period would run from Tuesday to October 7.
That would value the group at between 4 billion and 4.2 billion euros ($4.7 billion to $4.9 billion), raising between 766 million and 808 million euros for the company owned by the Naeder family.
Ottobock would receive 100 million euros, with the remainder going to the Naeder family, which will continue to hold more than 80% of the shares.
The company plans to list on the Frankfurt stock exchange on October 9, with Hamburg-based billionaire Klaus Michael Kuehne and a fund run by the U.S. asset manager Capital Group as cornerstone investors, it said.
In August, Ottobock reported a 30% leap in adjusted first-half core profit to 180 million euros on sales of 801 million euros, helped by product launches and acquisitions.
Earlier plans to take Ottobock public were put on hold in 2022 because of choppy financial markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The planned IPO would be this year’s first new issue on the Frankfurt exchange’s strictly regulated Prime Standard segment.
Medical technology manufacturer Brainlab and auto parts retailer Autodoc failed in their first attempts.
Hans-Georg Naeder, a grandson of company founder Otto Bock, has long considered opening up the group to outside investors and sold a 20% stake to Swedish investor EQT in 2017 in a prelude to a potential stock market listing at a later stage.
EQT, however, sold the stake back to the family last year.
($1 = 0.8529 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Paolo LaudaniWriting by Miranda MurrayEditing by Ludwig Burger and David Goodman)
