The Australian data-centre company has withdrawn its planned share sale after investors balked at the price and terms. Firmus said the offer would not reflect its long-term growth outlook.
The board’s decision followed days of negotiations over the offer. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Firmus first lowered the proposed share price, considered revising the terms and then pulled the IPO on Friday morning. The company said it had weighed market volatility and concluded the offering was not in shareholders’ interests on the available terms.
The plan was to raise US$5.5 billion, or about A$7.9 billion, at a valuation of roughly A$43.7 billion. The proceeds were intended to help fund data-centre projects in Australia and Southeast Asia. Firmus said it would now pursue private capital and consider other financing options.
Investor concerns included the valuation and the possibility that early shareholders could sell large stakes soon after a listing. Bloomberg reporting published by The Business Times said the bookbuilding had closed amid questions about demand at A$11 a share. Some investors also questioned the gap between the company’s growth ambitions and its current operating scale.
Firmus’s latest annual revenue was A$50 million, according to the SMH report, and it currently operates two data centres. The IPO proceeds would have helped buy graphics-processing units for a project in Batam, Indonesia, being developed with DayOne Data Centres under an eight-year partnership with Nvidia.
The company said it would update shareholders as it explores private-market funding and other public or private options. Nvidia and Blackstone are among investors that have committed capital to Firmus. The decision means the planned shares will not begin trading on the ASX as scheduled.