Business · Companies · 2 days ago
Firmus withdraws planned $44 billion ASX listing
Firmus, an Australian company that builds data centres for artificial intelligence services, has withdrawn plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange.
The planned share sale would have valued the company at about $44 billion and been one of Australia’s largest listings in decades.
Investors raised concerns about the proposed price, the company’s growth plans and the debt needed to expand.
Firmus currently operates two data centres, while it has outlined plans for more sites in Australia and several Asian countries.
The company says it will now pursue funding from private investors and consider other options.
Reports say it is also weighing a possible US listing next year.
The decision leaves its expansion plans and future funding unresolved.
Firmus has withdrawn plans for an ASX listing that would have valued the Australian data centre company at about $44 billion.
The company said market volatility and prevailing conditions meant the offer would not reflect its long-term growth outlook.
Firmus will pursue private-market funding and consider other options.
The planned offer drew investor concerns about its price, debt and the risks of building out its data centres.
Firmus had planned to raise billions of dollars to fund data centre expansion across Australia and parts of Asia.
- Who
- Firmus, an Australian data centre company co-founded by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield.
- What
- It withdrew plans for an ASX listing that would have valued it at about $44 billion.
- When
- The withdrawal was announced on Friday morning, according to the SMH.
- Where
- The planned listing was on the Australian Securities Exchange.
- Why
- Firmus said market volatility and conditions meant the offer would not reflect its long-term growth outlook. Investors also raised concerns about the price and terms.
Firmus
Cautious investors
Pricing
Firmus
Firmus said the offer terms would not appropriately reflect its long-term growth outlook.
Cautious investors
Investors questioned the valuation and described the pricing as aggressive or “punchy”.
Growth and risk
Firmus
Firmus planned to expand its data centre business and said it would pursue private-market funding and consider other options.
Cautious investors
Investors cited execution risks, debt levels and the gap between operating capacity and planned capacity.
The board therefore concluded that proceeding with the offer was not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders
We think that Firmus indeed has a compelling story. It just doesn't have a compelling valuation
The contracts with OpenAI and Meta are still real, but the fact of the matter is they only had 46 megawatts operating out of 912 megawatts scheduled
There was a lot of international investor interest, however, when it comes to the crunch, the demand seems like it isn’t there when they were asked to put up the capital that’s required
Firmus’ bankers said they had received more interest than there were shares available in the planned float, according to the SMH.
Reports emerged that Firmus was considering cutting the offer price from $11 to $8.25 a share, according to ABC Australia.
Firmus withdrew its planned ASX listing, according to the SMH.
Firmus said it would pursue private-market funding and consider other options.
- Planned valuation
- About $44 billion
- Planned share price
- $11 per share; reports said Firmus considered lowering it to $8.25
- Planned capital raise
- $US5.5 billion, or $7.9 billion, according to the SMH
- Current operating sites
- Two data centres, according to the SMH
- Planned data centre capacity
- 46 megawatts operating out of 912 megawatts scheduled, according to Armina Rosenberg in the SMH
Sources
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