Firmus Grid Ltd. priced its initial public offering at A$11 a share, seeking to raise at least $5 billion in what could be one of Australia's largest-ever IPOs. The pricing implies a valuation of approximately A$43.7 billion ($30.3 billion), slightly below earlier expectations of up to A$50 billion. The bookbuild is scheduled to open on Oct. 6 and close on Oct. 9, with a target ASX debut on Oct. 23.
This listing would match the scale of Medibank Pvt’s 2014 offering, which raised just under $5 billion, and would provide a significant boost to Australia’s primary market, where proceeds this year have exceeded $1 billion. The pricing follows an extensive roadshow across Australia and the US. Firmus has secured major deals with high-profile clients, including $2 billion in commitments from investors such as Jane Street, Blackstone Inc., and Nvidia Corp., and raised $505 million in a Coatue Management-led funding round in April.
These funds will support the purchase of graphics processing units for its first data center project in Batam, Indonesia, developed with Day One Data Centers Ltd. as part of an eight-year partnership with Nvidia Corp. Joint lead managers include Bank of America Securities, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Morgans Financial Ltd. Originally a Bitcoin mining operation in Tasmania since 2019, Firmus has capitalized on surging demand for AI infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region, with a pipeline of data center projects in Australia and Singapore. Co-chief executive officers are Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing