After its IPO Friday, German brake conglomerate Knorr-Bremse is officially a public company.
According to Transport Topics, Knorr-Bremse’s majority shareholder, Heinz Hermann Thiele, now has a net worth of about $15.3 billion. According to the site:
Knorr-Bremse was founded in 1905, and Thiele started there in 1969 as a legal specialist in the patents department. He rose through the ranks before buying the company in 1985. At that point Thiele hadn’t even repaid the mortgage on his house.
According to Reuters,
Bankers who worked on the deal said it had been oversubscribed several times over, with good demand from German institutional investors, as well as in Britain, Switzerland and the United States.
“We can be very happy with the flotation, especially given the market volatility of recent days,” said Patrick Frowein of Deutsche Bank after Thiele rang the bell to start trading.
“Big institutional investors realised they are getting a piece of the ‘Made in Germany’ story – a company that embodies the strength of the German economy and industry, and that will be sustainable in the long term.”
The stock initially sold for 80.10 euros but as of Tuesday is trading for around 83.50.
Earlier in The Brake Report: Knorr-Bremse and Continental partner to make highly automated solutions
