Only three IPOs were larger: Sunrise is returning.Bild: KEYSTONE
Sunrise returns to the Swiss SIX stock exchange on Friday (today) after a four-year absence. Based on trading in American depositary receipts (ADS) the evening before, this will be one of the largest IPOs in the world.
On Thursday, the Sunrise ADS on the US technology exchange Nasdaq rose by 6.2 percent to $ 48.00. This would give Sunrise a market capitalization of $3.4 billion.
Only the IPOs of Lineage in the USA ($5.1 billion) and Midea Group in China ($4.0 billion) were even larger. In Switzerland, Sunrise would be well ahead of the skin care specialist Galderma, whose IPO in March raised almost 2.3 billion francs.
However, Sunrise is not a classic initial public offering with a capital raising (IPO), but rather a spin-off from the parent company Liberty Global. The previous Liberty shareholders received Sunrise ADSs, which have been traded on the Nasdaq since last Wednesday.
Liberty shareholders can now either sell their ADSs on Nasdaq or exchange them for Sunrise shares. There is one share of the Swiss telecommunications company per ADS. Trading in Sunrise shares on the Swiss SIX stock exchange starts at 9 a.m. with the traditional ringing of the stock exchange bell by the company’s management.
Different stock categories
The allocation process was complicated because Liberty Global has three categories of shares. Sunrise will also have two share categories. The current Liberty shareholders will receive one A share of Sunrise for 5 shares of Liberty Global.
Only Sunrise’s A shares with the ticker symbol “SUNN” are listed on the Swiss stock exchange. They are expected to be included in the broad SPI stock market index five trading days after listing. That would be next Friday, November 22nd.
There is also a second share category B with ten times the voting power. This remains largely owned by Liberty bosses John Malone and Mike Fries, who therefore hold a good quarter of the stake in the Swiss group.
The Sunrise B shares are not listed on the stock exchange. Owners of these B shares can exchange their shares for Sunrise A shares at a ratio of 1:10. A total of 68,759,702 Sunrise Class A shares and 25,977,316 Sunrise Class B shares are outstanding.
Entrepreneurial freedom
With the IPO, Sunrise will be released again into entrepreneurial freedom. The Swiss company will be operationally separated from the US cable network giant. To reduce Sunrise’s debt, Liberty is investing 1.2 billion francs.
Sunrise will not completely separate itself from the parent company in the future. This means business relationships still exist. “Thanks to various service agreements, Sunrise will continue to benefit from the partnership with Liberty Global,” it was said at the Capital Markets Day in September. In addition, Liberty bosses John Malone and Mike Fries remain major shareholders and therefore have great influence. (leo/sda/awp)
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