€1.179 million IPO of Premiere
Global coordinators/bookrunners: CSFB, HVB, Morgan Stanley
Date: March 8 2005
Pay-TV operator Premiere injected much-needed confidence into the German IPO market last month with the country's largest ever media IPO. Its debut on March 8 2005 was an important test for market sentiment.
"The German IPO market has been rather skittish for the past few years, with transactions either being downscaled or abandoned," says Marco Illy, head of investment banking for Germany, Switzerland and Austria at CSFB.
The last three German IPOs, from Paion, Epigenomics and Deutsche Postbank, were all forced to revise their price range downwards.
By contrast, "this deal was hugely successful", Illy says. It was the largest non-public-sector IPO since March 2000 and no other German IPO has priced at the top of the price range since February 2001.
Top of the range
The stock was priced at the top of a €24 to €28 range, bringing Premiere's market capitalization to €2.3 billion. The deal generated more than €14.6 billion of demand, making the overall offering 12 times oversubscribed.
Investor sentiment towards the company's strong management and growth potential could be seen in aftermarket performance.