BC Partners-Backed Springer Nature Adds Banks for German IPO

Swetha Gopinath and Arno Schütze, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Springer Nature, the private equity-backed academic publisher, has added a raft of banks for a renewed listing attempt that could give it a market value of as much as €7 billion ($7.6 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

The company could launch its Frankfurt initial public offering as soon as September, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

BNP Paribas SA, Commerzbank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UniCredit SpA have been picked as bookrunners for the listing, the people said. They join Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co., which are leading the offering, according to the people.

Springer Nature, which is owned by BC Partners and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, is behind influential titles including the journal Nature and Scientific American magazine. Including debt, Springer could be valued at as much as €9 billion, the people said. Details of the offering, including the valuation and timing, could change, they said.

Representatives for Springer and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group didn’t respond to requests seeking comment, while a spokesperson for BC Partners declined to comment.

Springer Nature has made several previous IPO attempts, most recently in 2020. It shelved those plans because of the market volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, BC Partners brought in new investors led by Neuberger Berman Group LLC through a special-purpose fund.

Representatives for Commerzbank, Goldman, UniCredit, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan declined to comment. Spokespeople for BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The latest listing effort comes as the European IPO market rebounds from a two-year slump. Companies in the region have raised nearly $13 billion in 2024, more than twice as much as in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with listings from the likes of beauty group Puig Brands SA and private capital behemoth CVC Capital Partners Plc rejuvenating the market.

Other IPOs expected to launch soon include Spanish clothing retailer Tendam and Greyhound bus owner Flix, Bloomberg News recently reported, while British personal computer maker Raspberry Pi on Wednesday confirmed its plan for an initial public offering in London.

--With assistance from Eyk Henning.

(Updates with enterprise value in fourth paragraph.)