Ottobock, a German manufacturer of prosthetics, expects a valuation up to $4.9 Billion in its German IPO

The German prosthetics firm Ottobock is expecting a valuation up to $4.9 Billion from its planned Initial Public Offering (IPO), it announced on Monday.

The largest artificial limb manufacturer in the world announced that it would offer up to 12,35 million shares at a range of 62 to 66 euros per share. The offer period will run from Tuesday through October 7.

This would put the value of the group between 4 billion and 42 billion euros ($4.7 to $4.9 billion), bringing in between 766 and 808 millions euros for the family-owned company.

Ottobock will receive 100 million Euros, and the rest goes to the Naeder Family, who will retain more than 80% shares.

It said that the company planned to list at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on October 9 with billionaire Klaus Michael Kuehne from Hamburg and Capital Group, a U.S. asset management firm as cornerstone investors.

Ottobock announced in August a 30% increase in its adjusted core profit for the first half of 2018, which was boosted by new product launches and acquisitions. Ottobock's plans to go public in 2022 were put on hold due to the choppy markets following Russia's invasion.

This would be the first new issue of this year on Frankfurt's Prime Standard segment, which is strictly regulated. Both Autodoc and Brainlab, a retailer of auto parts, failed their first attempt at an IPO.

Hans-Georg Naeder is the grandson of Otto Bock who founded the company. He has been considering opening up his group to investors from outside. In 2017, he sold a 20 percent stake to Swedish investor EQT as a precursor to a possible stock market listing.

EQT sold back the stake to the family in the last year.

(source: Reuters)