The Augsburg tank gear manufacturer Renk is not returning to the stock market. The shares were supposed to be traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for the first time this Thursday, but a few hours earlier Renk and its owner, the financial investor Triton, postponed the issue indefinitely. “The market environment has deteriorated noticeably in the last few days,” said Renk, explaining the short-term cancellation. It will be examined whether the IPO will be rescheduled later. The demand for the papers was obviously far too low.
It had previously become apparent that the 27.03 million shares could only have been sold at the lower end of the price range. The accompanying investment banks had given investors 15 euros as the expected issue price on Wednesday. At this level, the issue was “many times oversubscribed,” it was said. The range went up to 18 euros. The company, which formerly belonged to MAN, would have been valued at 1.5 billion euros at the announced price. That’s more than double the price Triton paid in early 2020, but a significant discount to the valuation of other defense suppliers.
Defeat for Renk boss Susanne Wiegand: the IPO was initially canceled.
(Photo: Renk)
The financial investor is now missing out on proceeds of 405 million euros. Triton bought Renk from the car manufacturer Volkswagen for almost 700 million euros and then – after 97 years – took it off the stock market. Renk entered the American market with the 300 million euro takeover of the Combat Propulsion Systems division from the US group L3Harris. Renk builds large gearboxes and is currently experiencing a boom due to the upgrade. Transmissions for tanks and ships for the navy account for 70 percent of the 2022 sales of almost 850 million euros. The rest goes to civilian business, such as gearboxes for compressors. CEO Susanne Wiegand wants to increase sales to one billion euros.
Renk would have been the fourth newcomer to the stock exchange in Germany this year. It is unclear how the next stock market candidate will react to Renk’s rejection. According to insiders, DKV Mobility, the mobility service provider from Ratingen known for its fuel cards, wanted to make its stock market plans public this week. The shares of the Mainz-based pharmaceutical packaging manufacturer Schott Pharma were quoted on Wednesday – a week after the initial listing – at 30 euros, eleven percent above the issue price of 27 euros. The shares of Thyssenkrupp’s hydrogen subsidiary Nucera have lost eleven percent since the IPO in July. The cloud and web hosting provider Ionos is almost a quarter below the issue price.