Firmus Technologies has scrapped what was set to be Australia's biggest company listing in decades after investor demand for its much-hyped AI data centre business failed to materialise.
A Firmus spokesperson said the board decided that proceeding with the offer was no longer in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.
“Firmus will now pursue capital from the private markets and consider alternative public and private market options,” the spokesperson said on Friday morning. “We will provide additional information to shareholders as those options progress.”
Firmus, with an anticipated $44bn valuation, was expected to be the biggest ASX listing since Telstra in 1997.
It faced mounting scepticism over that valuation, and over its forecast earnings, for a company in its startup phase with just two small operational sites.
The company's bankers had sought to raise $7bn from investors ahead of a listing on the ASX on 23 October, with the help of five brokers. The pitch began to unravel midweek after it became clear that demand had been vastly overestimated, prompting discussions about a heavy reduction in the proposed $11-a-share offer price, according to one investment manager briefed on the matter. The company ultimately withdrew its application to list altogether.
Firmus is backed by the chip maker Nvidia and by the Wall Street firms Blackstone, Jane Street and Coatue. The lack of demand means it will need to raise money from private investors to fund its plans to build liquid-cooled “AI factories” in Australia and across Asia.
The troubles have already rattled other parts of the market, with shares in the Firmus investor Maas Group falling more than 20 per cent on Thursday.
The record, however, stands. Firmus was to be the largest listing on the Australian market since 1997, and nothing that happened this week alters the size of the listing it was going to be.
It is therefore the largest Australian float of the century so far not to occur, a category in which it leads comfortably and in which its lead cannot be eroded by trading.
This newspaper regards the position as an enviable one. A company that lists is immediately exposed to the opinion of buyers. A company that does not list retains its anticipated valuation in full, because the only figure capable of contradicting $44bn is a price, and no price was struck.
The $11 a share is likewise preserved. It was never paid, and so has never been wrong. Of the two numbers now available for Firmus, the one it asked for and the one the market offered, only the first has digits.
The Department of Unnecessary Research notes that the withdrawal also leaves the company's debut performance unblemished. It has not fallen on its first day, because it has had no first day, and a share that has not opened cannot close lower.
Five brokers, $7bn sought, two operational sites and one withdrawn application later, Firmus is worth exactly what it says it is. The arrangement will hold for precisely as long as nobody buys any.