Shares for global automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler are now being offered on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company announced it would list 166 million new and non-voting common shares of Schaeffler AG.
The public offering will allow Schaeffler reduce its financial debt for both Schaeffler AG and Schaeffler Holding, in hopes to financially strengthen the company.
“Over the last years we have consistently focused the Schaeffler Group towards the capital markets. The planned listing is a strategic step to further reduce our indebtedness and to improve the capital structure. We thus obtain further financial flexibility to seize additional growth opportunities,” said Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler AG in release.
The new and existing non-voting common shares will be distributed to institutional investors in Europe, North America and elsewhere through a bookbuilding process, the company said.
Schaeffler plans to pay a dividend of 25-35% of the annual net income to shareholders starting in 2015, it said.
Despite the IPO, Schaeffler plans to remain a family company.
“The Schaeffler Group will remain a family business in the future. As shareholders we will take responsibility to further successfully develop our company in the interest of our customers, our suppliers, and our many employees,” said Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann, shareholder and deputy chairperson of the supervisory board.
