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Rocket Internet, a German venture capital group
that has launched dozens of online start-ups worldwide, said
late on Tuesday it expected to raise almost double the amount it
initially targeted from its IPO, pricing shares to value the
firm at some $8 billion.
Speaking at a news conference in Frankfurt, where Rocket shares
are set to begin trading on Oct. 9, company co-founder Oliver
Samwer said the offering was fully subscribed just an hour after
the book-building process with new investors began.
"Our target is to be the leading Internet platform outside the
U.S. and China one day. Rocket's best time is yet to come," said
Samwer, who is also chief executive.
Founded in 2007 by brothers Oliver, Alexander and Marc Samwer,
Rocket Internet has set up e-commerce sites and online
marketplaces for everything from taxis to meal deliveries in
more than 100 countries. It made revenue of $1 billion in 2013.
The Rocket flotation is coming on the heels of Friday's
blockbuster listing of China's Alibaba and amid strong demand
for the shares of Zalando, a European fashion site that Rocket
helped found, which is set to list next week.
The Berlin-based company set the price in a range of 35.50 to
42.50 euros per share and said it expected gross proceeds of
about 1.477 billion euros ($1.9 billion), assuming it places the
maximum number of shares at the mid-point of the price range,
corresponding to a market capitalisation of 6.2 billion euros.
That is almost double the 750 million euros it said it expected
to raise when it announced its listing plans 13 days ago.
The expected proceeds include 582.5 million euros from
cornerstone investors, who along with existing shareholders have
committed to a 12-month lock-up period. The publicly traded free
float excluding existing investors will be 24 percent.
(Reporting by Eric Auchard and Alexander Huebner; Editing by
Georgina Prodhan)
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