Firmus Grid lines up major IPO in Australia

Firmus Grid Ltd. is moving ahead with one of Australia’s largest planned initial public offerings, seeking to raise as much as $5.5 billion including a greenshoe option. The transaction centres on the company’s portfolio as a data centre operator and would position Firmus among the more highly valued technology infrastructure names on the Australian market.

Reports on the deal indicate that the IPO has been priced at A$11 per share. At this level, Firmus is understood to be valued at about A$43.7 billion, which translates to roughly US$30.3–30.6 billion based on contemporaneous currency assumptions.

A notable feature of the offering is the plan to allocate about half of the IPO shares to existing shareholders. This structure is designed to give current investors a substantial role in the transaction and maintains continuity in the company’s ownership base.

Among Firmus’s disclosed shareholders are Nvidia (NVDA), Coatue, Blackstone (BX) and Jane Street. The share allocation framework would put Nvidia (NVDA) and Blackstone (BX) in a position to increase their stakes, should they choose to participate at the scale permitted within the bookbuild.

People familiar with the offering process have indicated that investor interest has come in well in excess of the offer size. This level of demand has led the banks managing the transaction to move the close of the institutional bookbuilding phase up to Thursday from an initially planned Friday end date.

The accelerated schedule underlines the depth of the order book built for the transaction. It also provides the company and its advisers with earlier visibility on final allocations between existing shareholders and new institutional investors.

Reports on the IPO timetable state that Firmus expects to lodge its prospectus on October 12. Following completion of the offer and allocation process, the company’s shares are expected to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23.

The combination of a large targeted raise, significant participation by existing shareholders, and an early closing bookbuild positions the Firmus IPO as a closely watched event in the Australian equity capital markets calendar.