Rocket Internet ready for IPO blast-off later this year

(Update on October 2: Rocket Internet listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange priced at €42.50, but it closed down at €37.)

Rocket Internet – which runs major web services and estores such as EasyTaxi, Foodpanda, and Lazada – intends to proceed with an IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange this year, according to an announcement today from Kinnevik, a major backer of the German startup dynamo (hat-tip to Tech.eu for spotting this).

The company is building up the world’s biggest web services and ecommerce company outside of America and China, with an especial focus on often underserved areas such as Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, Russia, and parts of the African continent. The sites are sometimes described as clones of ones that first emerged in other countries, such as the Airbnb-like Wimdu.

The IPO will give the well-funded firm even more money to expand its operations around the world. It will have significant ramifications in Asia too. That’ll be especially the case in Southeast Asia, where some Rocket-fuelled startups lead their respective markets up against an array of local rivals. For example, the Amazon-esque Lazada leads in several of the Southeast Asian markets where it operates, and EasyTaxi is the leading taxi app in many of the numerous countries where it operates.

See: Ahead of Rocket Internet IPO, here are the numbers on its Southeast Asian ecommerce stores

Rocket has not been scared of entering very early and risky markets in the region, such as Myanmar and Pakistan, where it’s not anticipating making money for several years.

Kinnevik’s announcement states that major shareholders, including the co-founding Samwer brothers, will not dispose of their shares for at least twelve months after the public listing.

Though no numbers are revealed today, a source tells Reuters that the Rocket IPO is worth about 750 million euros (US$970 million) by floating a stake of just below 15 percent of the company.

China’s Alibaba is close to launching its US IPO, which will see it raise somewhere in the region of US$20 billion to US$24 billion.

(Via: Tech.eu)