FRANKFURT, Sept 12 (Askume) – Springer, publisher of the science journals Nature and Scientific American, said on Thursday it plans an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange that it expects to complete by the end of this year.
The German academic research publisher said its planned IPO would consist of a capital raise of 200 million euros ($220 million) and the sale of existing shares. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and BC Partners currently hold 53% and 47% of the shares, respectively.
Springer Nature also plans to pay a dividend of 25 million euros ($27.5 million) this year, after which the annual dividend will be about 50% of adjusted annual net profit.
Askume reported last week that Springer Nature could announce its intention to go public in the coming days, after also reporting that the IPO could value the company at as much as 9 billion euros ($10 billion), including debt .
According to a term sheet seen by Askume, most of the proceeds from the listing are aimed at further reducing Springer Nature’s debt and optimising its financing structure.
Its annual report shows that its financial leverage ratio fell from 4.6 times to 2.9 times in 2019.
Springer Nature CEO Frank Vrancken Pieters told Askume that investors had responded well, allowing his shareholder BC Partners to exit the investment.
“The first step in the process is to confirm the company visit,” he said.
Chief Financial Officer Alexandra Dambeck said the secondary structure of the deal — the placement of existing shares held by BC Partners — would be determined in due course.
Springer Nature’s IPO plans will be closely watched by other companies planning to list in Europe, including Swiss skin-care company Galderma (GALD.S) and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners .
Bookrunners for BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley (MS.N) , Deutsche Bank (DBKGN.DE) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N)(BNPP.PA) , Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) , Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and UniCredit (CRDI.MI) , as well as Springer Nature led the IPO investments .
Springer Nature postponed its previous IPO plans in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, the Group’s revenue will be 1.85 billion euros, and its adjusted operating profit will be 511 million euros.
(1 USD = 0.9077 EUR)
