Australia's Firmus to allocate half of IPO to existing investors

Australian data centre operator ⁠Firmus plans ⁠to allocate about half of its up to US$5.5 billion ($7.9 billion) initial public offering, including the over-allotment option, to selected existing strategic and financial investors, two people with knowledge of the ‌matter said.

The people did not identify which shareholders ‌were ‌set to receive allocations.

Firmus said in ‌previous press statements that its investors include ⁠Nvidia, Coatue, Blackstone and Jane Street.

In an US$2 billion strategic equity round in August, Firmus said Nvidia and Coatue made follow-on investments, while Blackstone and Jane Street also participated.

The planned share sale would be the second-largest Australian-listed IPO on record, behind ⁠only Telstra's US$10 billion share sale in 1997.

Indications of interest have exceeded the shares available in the offering, one of the people said.

Bookbuilding will begin on Tuesday and the stock is due to start trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23.

The company has fixed the share price at A$11, giving it a valuation of about US$30.6 billion, according to a term ​sheet seen by Reuters.

The people said ⁠the banks now expect to close the institutional ⁠bookbuild on Thursday, a day earlier than the Friday close set out in the ​term sheet.

A bookbuild is the process in which banks ‌collect orders from ⁠large investors.

The people declined to be named as the matter was private.

Firmus said in an email it had "no comment or further detail to provide at this ‌time."

The company is scheduled to lodge its prospectus on October 12, according to the term sheet.

Bank of America, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Morgans are leading the IPO.

Firmus' valuation has nearly ​tripled since its August funding round, which valued the company at around US$10.5 billion post-money.

Sydney-headquartered Firmus is an AI-infrastructure and cloud-services company that designs and operates modular AI ‌factories using ⁠proprietary energy and cooling ​technology.

It currently operates one data centre in Melbourne and one in Singapore.