Spotify rival Deezer looking to raise €300m in IPO

Music streaming service Deezer said it expects to raise €300 millionfrom selling new shares when it lists on the Paris stock exchange later this month.

Deezer said trading of its shares on Euronext Paris would start on October 30th as it looks to raise cash to try to keep up with larger, deeper-pocketed rivals such as Apple and Sweden's Spotify.

“The IPO will allow us to accelerate our growth and continue to play a leading role,” chief executive Hans-Holger Albrecht said in a statement on Thursday.

Deezer and its rivals represent a shift in the music industry, away from buying and downloading tracks to listening online to songs stored remotely. The company has 6.3 million subscribers who can listen to a catalogue of 35 million songs for €9.99 a month.

The company set a price target for the initial public offering of between €36.40 and €49.24, and plans to sell 8.242 million new shares at the lowest price, falling to 6.092 million at the highest.

Deezer said it expected net proceeds of about €291 million. An over-allotment option to increase the number of shares sold by 15 per cent could bring additional gross proceeds of €45 million, it said.

Deezer's largest shareholder with 27 per cent is tycoon Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, while Orange owns 11 per cent. Three music labels, Warner Music, Sony Music and Universal Music, part of Vivendi, together own close to 15 per cent of the shares.

Analysts have put a potential stock market value of about €1 billion on the company.

BNP Paribas and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO. Citigroup and Societe Generale are acting as joint bookrunners.

Reuters