Hot on the heels of reports earlier this month that it had revived plans for an initial public offering (IPO), Germany’s Tele Columbus has unveiled details of the listing, Broadband TV News reports. With the offer period set to start today (13 January 2015) and end on 21 January, the price range for the offered shares has been set at between EUR8 and EUR12 (USD9.47-USD14.20) per share. Meanwhile, the admission to trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is planned for 23 January 2015. It is understood that Tele Columbus will issue both existing and new shares as part of a capital increase, with the offering size amounting to EUR300 million in new shares and EUR147 million in existing shares, assuming the shares are placed at the mid-point of the price range. Proceeds from the IPO will reportedly be used to reduce debts and increase the company’s scope for growth, with Ronny Verhelst, Tele Columbus CEO, cited as saying: ‘Over the medium term, we want to raise the number of products per customer from today’s 1.43 to 1.7, grow the monthly average revenue per customer from EUR14.0 to EUR17.0 and increase the share of upgraded households supplied with own signals from 54% to 70%.’
In separate but related news, Tele Columbus has scheduled the launch of 400Mbps (download) broadband service on 1 April in Potsdam, the capital of federal state Brandenburg, initially covering around 40,000 households. Pricing for the new faster internet service has not yet been announced, while a timetable for expansion to other regions is also yet to be disclosed.