According to current planning, the first major German IPO of the year is to take place in the week of February 6th: According to FAZ information, the initial public offering (IPO) of the web service provider Ionos is currently planned for calendar week six.

Klaus Max Smolka

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

Then the issue price should be fixed and the first trading should take place in the course of that week, according to financial circles.

Everything will depend on the capital market environment and the interest of the investors addressed: But the majority shareholder United Internet and the co-owner Warburg Pincus are reportedly currently aiming to bring 15 to 20 percent of the shares to the market.

600 to 800 million euros in proceeds

According to the current status, the proceeds from the issue are calculated at 600 to 800 million euros.

Warburg Pincus holds 24.9 percent of Ionos.

It has probably not yet been decided whether the private equity house will account for almost a quarter of the package to be sold.

Those involved declined to comment.

United Internet intends to retain a majority after the IPO.

Global coordinators are Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Berenberg and BNP Paribas.

The IPO would give momentum to the largely idle business with new issues in Germany.

Last year there was a major project in Frankfurt in the form of the Porsche IPO - otherwise 2022 was a largely lost year.

Ionos is primarily a web hosting provider, i.e. it provides websites for small and medium-sized companies, generates 90 percent of its sales in this segment and almost all of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda).

Ionos is the European market leader in this field, while important American competitors are Godaddy and Squarespace.

A small division is dedicated to the cloud, which has not yet contributed any significant profit or at least reinvested it immediately.

The intention to go onto the floor was officially announced on Tuesday last week.

At the end of this week or early next week, according to the planning, the prospectus should be approved by the authorities;

then there is the range within which the stock should start trading.

On this basis, the owners and management advertise the new paper to investors.

Around eight to twelve days are planned until the issue price is determined - and trading starts shortly afterwards.

No capital increase

A capital increase is not planned.

Insiders recently estimated the overall valuation of Ionos at up to 5 billion euros.

Assuming the maximum value and stimulating the currently probable range of 20 percent for the package, the result would be one billion euros.

The current emissions calculation is much more cautious.