Firmus Grid IPO Faces Soft Demand, Fails to Get Enough Bids at A$11 Target
Bloomberg reported on Oct 8 that Australian data center company Firmus Grid failed to secure sufficient subscriptions at its target price of A$11 per share. Just days earlier, the company said subscription interest had far exceeded the offering size, with a valuation that at one point approached US$30 billion.
Firmus Grid had planned to raise about US$5.5 billion through the IPO at a valuation of nearly US$30 billion. However, after closing the order book, the company has not announced final pricing and deal structure. Market participants expect the offer price may be cut, or the transaction could even be shelved.
The weak demand contrasts with the rapid rise in the company's valuation. In early August, Firmus Grid completed a funding round at a valuation of about US$10.5 billion, with investors including Jane Street and Blackstone. Just two months later, the target IPO valuation was close to US$30 billion.
Firmus Grid's operating scale remains small. Its revenue for fiscal 2026 was only US$51 million. It operates two data centers with 46 megawatts of built capacity. While its planned data center pipeline reaches 912 megawatts, most projects have yet to be built. The company plans to use IPO proceeds to expand AI data centers in Asia, with clients including Meta and OpenAI, and hardware supplied by shareholder Nvidia.
Investors are mainly concerned about the lack of a large-scale operating track record, the high valuation, and the potential selling pressure from about 58% of shares being freely tradable after listing. Australian pension fund UniSuper decided not to participate in the IPO. Its chief investment officer said the company has a compelling story but not a compelling valuation. Ten Cap Investment's co-founder said the IPO faces a lot of investor skepticism, with the core issue being that Firmus has not built many data centers yet.
Maas Group, which holds a stake in Firmus, plunged as much as 30% intraday before closing down 22% on the same day. The setback is not isolated; data center company Accelevation Holdings also priced below its earlier marketing range when it listed in the U.S. last month.
