The price implies a valuation of about A$43.7 billion (US$30.3 billion) for Firmus, the terms show, falling short of earlier expectations of as much as A$50 billion. The bookbuild will open on Oct 6 and close Oct 9, unless accelerated. The company is targeting an ASX debut on Oct 23. 

The listing is shaping up to be one of the largest-ever IPOs in Australia, on par with Medibank Pvt’s offering in 2014, which raised just a hair under US$5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That would be a welcome boost to the country’s primary market, where proceeds this year are just over US$1 billion, after surpassing US$2 billion in each of the previous two years.

The pricing comes after weeks of roadshow both in Australia and abroad, including the US. 

The company has inked a number of large deals with high-profile clients as it seeks to capitalise on artificial intelligence demand. It secured US$2 billion in commitments from investors including Jane Street, Blackstone Inc and Nvidia Corp in August, and raised US$505 million in a Coatue Management LLC-led funding round in April.

The proceeds would fund purchases of graphics processing units for its first data centre project in Batam, Indonesia being developed with DayOne Data Centers Ltd, as part of an eight-year partnership with US chip giant Nvidia Corp.

Bank of America Securities, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley and Morgans Financial Ltd are acting as joint lead managers. 

Firmus, which began as a Bitcoin mining operation in the Australian state of Tasmania in 2019, has benefitted from surging demand for AI infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region, with a pipeline of data centre projects in Australia and Singapore. Its co-chief executive officers are Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis.

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