Rocket Internet, the massive German Internet startup incubator, has just made its debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after raising 1.6 billion euros in the largest European IPO ever.
The company's shares didn't 'pop' in the first trade - it opened at €42.5 a share (see below), the price Rocket Internet had set yesterday evening - at the upper end of the range it had announced earlier - and was down more than 10 percent after early morning trading.
The share price recovered somewhat in the half hour after Rocket Internet's public trading debut but it isn't near the issue price yet:
Investor demand was high; Rocket Internet says the offering was over-subscribed “well in excess” of ten times at the top end of the 35.5 to 42.5 euros per share price range.
The opening price gives Rocket Internet a market cap of €6.7 billion or roughly $8.4 billion.
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”.
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”.
**Also read:**
Everything you've always wanted to know about Rocket Internet
An inside look at Sweden’s Kinnevik, the money behind Zalando and Rocket Internet
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