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By Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff
FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp
unit Uhde Chlorine Engineers aims to rake in up to 600
million euros ($687 million) by selling new shares in a possible
initial public offering this year, betting on the booming
hydrogen sector it supplies with equipment.
This would correspond to a stake of roughly 10-20% based on
a valuation range of 3 billion to 6 billion euros that analysts
have put on the division, which is being rebranded Thyssenkrupp
Nucera and could be listed on the stock exchange in spring.
The 500 million-600 million euros in potential proceeds from
new shares does not factor in the sale of existing stakes by
current owners Thyssenkrupp and Italy's De Nora <IPO-DENR.MI>,
which own Thyssenkrupp Nucera in a 66/34 split.
"Demand is huge. We want to use that opportunity," Denis
Krude, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Nucera, told Reuters ahead of a
capital markets day later on Thursday where investors will be
provided with a deeper look at the business for the first time.
Thyssenkrupp first floated the idea of an IPO of its
hydrogen business in May last year.
"We are a technology leader for electrolysis and have been
in the business for decades," Krude, who has led the division
since October 2016, said.
Thyssenkrupp Nucera is the world's top supplier of
chlor-alkali membrane technologies needed to produce hydrogen,
competing with Japan's Asahi Kasei, China's Bluestar
Beijing Chemical Machinery and Britain's chemicals group Ineos
.
It is also active in alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), a
key requirement for the generation of hydrogen produced via
renewable energy, pitting it against Norway's Nel ASA,
UK's ITM Power and France's McPhy Energy SAS.
In the fiscal year that ended in September, Thyssenkrupp
Nucera posted earnings before interest and tax of 27 million
euros while sales came in at 319 million euros, a level expected
to triple to 900 million to 1 billion euros by 2025/26.
Order backlog currently stands at 1.3 billion euros, with
AWE accounting for about 70%.
"The market has enormous potential," Krude said, adding
Nucera would invest 200 million to 300 million by 2024/25, of
which 150 million-200 million will be spent on strategic moves
including partnerships, production and smaller deals.
Europe, most notably Germany, wants to be a world leader in
green hydrogen, which is generated via renewable sources and is
therefore carbon-neutral, in a bid to cut emissions and
decarbonise its economy.
Thyssenkrupp, which makes everything from steel and
submarines to car parts and fertiliser plants, sees an IPO as
the preferred option for Nucera but has not made a final
decision on whether to go ahead with it.
"For the Thyssenkrupp group the most important thing in a
possible IPO is the so-called value crystallisation," said
Volkmar Dinstuhl, who leads the conglomerate's Multi Tracks
division of units the group no longer wants to fully own.
Dinstuhl declined to say how much Thyssenkrupp would sell as
part of a secondary offering in case of an IPO.
($1 = 0.8738 euro)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt and Tom Kaeckenhoff
in Duesseldorf
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
