By Arno Schuetze and Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in Siemens Healthineers gained more than 6 percent in the medical equipment maker's stock market debut on Friday, boding well for other pending German flotations including asset manager DWS.
In one of Germany's biggest listings in recent years, parent Siemens will bag 4.2 billion euros from selling a 15 percent stake in the world's largest maker of medical imaging equipment.
Issued at 28 euros a piece, the shares opened at 29.10 euros, delayed by more than an hour after market-wide technical problems at Deutsche Boerse's electronic trading platform.
The stock was up 6.2 percent at 29.73 euros as of 0945 GMT, outpacing a 0.4 percent gain on the benchmark DAX index.
The offer price, which valued Healthineers' equity at 28 billion euros, was seen by some market participants as a climb-down by Siemens to stoke interest in the issue.
Healthineers had been touted at 26-31 billion euros, below initial expectations of up to 40 billion.
Investors have cited uncertain prospects for Healthineers' flagship diagnostics product Atellica - machines for high-throughput testing of blood and urine samples. It is also seen facing slightly more volatile markets, which have pulled valuations off record highs.
Several large German listings are pending, including DWS next week. Publisher SpringerNature, property firm Godewind, homeshopping group HSE24, fashion retailer Takko and online furniture retailer Home24 are expected to follow suit.
($1 = 0.8116 euros)
(Editing by Maria Sheahan and Jason Neely)
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
