By Christoph Steitz and Emma-Victoria Farr
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp (ETR:TKAG) may pick June to list its hydrogen business Nucera, provided equity markets are robust, three people familiar with the matter said, in what could be a multi-billion euro initial public offering.
Plans to list Nucera, a 66%-34% joint venture between Thyssenkrupp and Italy's De Nora, were put on the backburner last year due to unfavourable market conditions following the war in Ukraine and subsequent energy crisis.
Nucera makes the electrolysers that are needed to produce green hydrogen - a sector that is currently benefiting from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and European Union initiatives to support the green energy transition.
Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Martina Merz, under pressure to deliver on her pledge to turn the sprawling conglomerate into a leaner and more focused holding, said last month that the group would make a new effort to list Nucera, without elaborating.
Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.
There has been no final decision on timing, and any listing depends on the market environment, the people said, adding conditions for an IPO of Nucera had improved overall.
The business could be valued anywhere between 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) and as much as 5 billion euros if forward sales multiples of rivals Nel and ITM Power are applied, the people said.
However, there are wide differences in valuations, highlighting how difficult it is to put a price tag on such an emerging technology.
When plans for a listing of the business were first communicated in 2021, analysts valued Nucera at between 3 billion and 6 billion euros.
Recent estimates from Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), suggest a more modest valuation of 450 million to 1.1 billion euros.
While the market environment is still not ideal for listings, it has improved markedly since last year, when investors shunned IPOs except for a few outliers, most notably Porsche (ETR:P911_p).
Nucera's co-owner De Nora, also managed to successfully list in June 2022, and its good run is driving optimism that a listing of the joint venture has a better chance of succeeding this time around, two of the people said, who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak on the matter.
Shares in De Nora, a leading manufacturer of electrodes for devices such as rechargeable batteries as well as components to produce green hydrogen, are up around a third since its stock market debut and have gained nearly a quarter this year alone.
($1 = 0.9131 euros)