Rocket Internet prices IPO at €42.5 per share (upper end of the range); valuation hits €6.7 billion ($8.45B)

Rocket Internet has set the price for its upcoming IPO at 42.5 euro per share, the upper end of the price range announced last week.

This gives the German startup factory an equity value of 5.1 billion euros pre-money and a market cap of approximately 6.7 billion euros ($8.45 billion), assuming the full exercise of the underwriting banks’ option in connection with an over-allotment.

The new shares issued, including the over-allotment option, correspond to 24 percent of Rocket Internet's share capital.

Rocket Internet shares will start trading on the Entry Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange starting tomorrow (2 October) under the ticker symbol “RKET”.

Also read: Everything you've always wanted to know about Rocket Internet (and the official fact sheet)

Rocket Internet says the offering was over-subscribed "well in excess" of ten times at the top end of the price range (which was 35.50 to 42.50 euros per share).

The offer is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to 1.6 billion euros for Rocket Internet, representing 21.5 percent of the company's ordinary shares. No existing shareholders have sold any shares in the IPO, the company notes in a statement.

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An inside look at Sweden’s Kinnevik, the money behind Zalando and Rocket Internet

Currently, Rocket Internet shareholders includes Global Founders (the investment vehicle of Rocket Internet CEO and founder Oliver Samwer and his brothers), Kinnevik, Access Industries, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, United Internet and Holtzbrinck Ventures and some of their affiliates.

Rocket Internet says it plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to "finance its future growth through the launch of new businesses and providing further equity capital to its network of companies".

Its IPO prospectus can be downloaded here.

Since its founding in 2007, Rocket Internet has expanded to over 100 countries, with more than 20,000 persons working across its network of companies today. Its self-reported mission is "to become the world’s largest Internet platform outside of the United States and China".

A few weeks ago, the company announced that it would consolidate five of the fashion brands that it has established in emerging markets into a single group with a combined valuation of €2.7 billion.

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Doing it the Rocket Internet way: an inside look at what it’s like to build companies at lightning speed