Firmus scraps Australian stock market listing after weak investor demand
Firmus Technologies, an Australian AI data centre company, has cancelled its planned share market debut, which would have been Australia's largest in decades. It will now seek private capital and weigh other options.
Firmus Technologies, an Australian company that builds and runs data centres for artificial intelligence, announced on Friday that it is abandoning its planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Investor demand fell short, despite the considerable attention surrounding the business. The float would have been Australia's largest company listing in decades.
A company spokesperson said the board concluded that going ahead with the offer was no longer in the best interests of the company or its shareholders.
What happens next
Firmus intends to raise capital from private markets and will look at alternative options in both public and private markets. The spokesperson said shareholders would receive more information as those options develop.
The expected valuation
The company had been expected to carry a valuation of A$44bn. Had the listing gone ahead, it would have been the biggest on the ASX since the telecommunications company Telstra listed in 1997.
The information available so far is brief, and further details about the shortfall in demand or the size of the offer are not yet available.
