Over 1850 Total Lots Up For Auction at Six Locations - MA 04/30, NJ Cleansweep 05/02, TX 05/03, TX 05/06, NJ 05/08, WA 05/09

Siemens now planning smaller Healthineers IPO

by Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | March 06, 2018
Business Affairs
German industrial giant Siemens is planning a more modest IPO for its Healthineers division.

The listing is now slated for late March on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, subject to approval of the prospectus by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the company announced in a statement.

The offering will be for 15 percent of the base shares of the Healthineers – to a maximum of 150 million – with a price range set between €26 to €31.

Depending on the final offer price, this should raise gross proceeds between €3.90 ($4.8) billion and €4.65 ($5.7) billion.

The offer puts a price of 31 billion euros on the division, smaller than anticipated previously. The division had been thought to be worth closer to 35 billion euros, according to Reuters.

Recent market volatility, as well as a busy IPO season, has led to some investor concerns over high pricing.

"Investors are pushing back against aggressive valuations and showing much more price sensitivity because they are fed up with poor IPO aftermarket performance," a unnamed senior banker told Reuters Monday.

This is compounded by more competition for IPO dollars. "The number of potential IPOs has basically accelerated, again. There's a lot in the pipeline," Ed Meier, fund manager at Old Mutual Global Investors, told the news service.

Despite the solid business characteristics of the Healthineers, some were surprised by the effect on the IPO. “It appears that the recent stock market volatility has had a more pronounced impact on the valuation of Siemens Healthineers than we had previously expected,” Baader Helvea analyst Guenther Hollfelder noted, according to Bloomberg.

Still, the agency reported that Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Uglow felt the Healthineers was valued in keeping with estimates.

On Monday Siemens published the prospectus for the offering.

In the prospectus the company says that the intended purpose of the proceeds is “to lay the foundation for the company’s further profitable growth and the expansion of its strong position as a leading global supplier of health care products, solutions and services,” adding that it is also intended “to provide the company with enhanced entrepreneurial flexibility and access to the capital markets in order to grow sustainably and profitably while actively shaping the paradigm shift in the health care industry.”

In January, Siemens Healthineers announced a round of planned cost-cutting ahead of its IPO. The strategic plans called for structural changes to save about $293.9 million a year, with the impact of these savings beginning to show in 2020.

The company also announced plans to make the most of the shifting landscape in health care.

Siemens Healthineers is “a business well prepared to take advantage of the paradigm shifts in health care," Michael Sen, chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Healthineers and member of the Siemens managing board, said at the time.

And Bernd Montag, CEO of Siemens Healthineers stressed, in January, that given its positioning and global footprint, the organization will be “one of the main long-term beneficiaries of the significant structural growth inherent in our markets.”

You Must Be Logged In To Post A Comment