Shares of Siemens medical equipment unit Healthineers rise in Frankfurt debut

Friday, 16 March 2018

• Shares of Healthineers surged more than 6 percent during morning deals, with the listing likely to galvanize the mood among other pending German floatations.
• The initial public offering (IPO) of Healthineers marked one of Germany’s biggest listings in recent years and one of the largest European IPOs in 2018.
• "It is a great moment for us, we are happy about the confidence investors have put in us," Bernd Montag, CEO of Siemens Healthineers, told CNBC on Friday.

The medical equipment unit of German engineering firm Siemens began trading on the country’s stock exchange Friday.
Shares of Siemens Healthineers surged more than 6 percent during morning deals, with the listing likely to galvanize the mood among other pending German flotations.
"It is a great moment for us, we are happy about the confidence investors have put in us," Bernd Montag, CEO of Siemens Healthineers, told CNBC Friday.
The initial public offering (IPO) of Healthineers marked one of Germany’s biggest listings in recent years and one of the largest European IPOs in 2018.
Issued at 28 euros apiece, shares of the company opened at 29.10 euros on Friday. However, the IPO was delayed.
When asked whether the delay to Healthineers’ stock market debut had been a source of frustration, Montag replied: "No, we have been on the journey to this day for basically three years … We had very great moments and challenging moments on this journey so half an hour at the home stretch didn’t make a big difference and we are happy that we made it anyway."
The offer price was seen by some investors as a climb-down by Siemens in order to create heightened interest in the issue. Despite previous valuations of closer to 35 billion euros, Healthineers’ equity is valued at 28 billion euros.
Siemens is selling a 15 percent stake in the world’s biggest maker of medical imaging equipment. The move is designed to help the company raise its own funds for future takeovers and investments as well as bolstering its standalone value.
Several major banks acted as global coordinators to help the IPO take place Friday with Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan all involved in the listing.
Several large German IPOs are pending, with DWS scheduled for next week. Meanwhile, SpringerNature, HSE24, Takko and Godewind are all expected to follow over the coming weeks. CNBC.com