The world’s largest prosthetics manufacturer, Ottobock, is once again preparing for an IPO this fall. The family-dominated medical technology company from Duderstadt announced on Monday that it is planning a listing on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by the end of the year – subject to market conditions.

In financial circles, Ottobock was recently given a valuation of around 6 billion euros. This would be about 16 times its operating profit (Ebitda), which is higher than some competitors, including Embla from Iceland, Blatchford from the UK, and Proteor from France. „We have always grown through innovation. We are a frontrunner and bring new innovations to the market,“ explained CEO Oliver Jakobi when discussing the estimated valuation with Börsen-Zeitung.

Around 1.5 billion euros are expected to be raised for 25% of the shares. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs are leading the IPO. The proceeds from the offering are intended, among other things, to repay the loan that the owners’ holding company took out from financial investors KKR, Carlyle, Hayfin, and Macquarie to finance the repurchase of 20% of the shares from EQT. In March 2024, according to financial sources, the family paid around 1.1 billion euros for the investor’s 20% stake, becoming the sole owner again. Thus the entire company was valued at 5.5 billion euros in that process.

Ottobock is the first German company to announce stock market plans after the summer break. The pharmaceutical manufacturer Stada, which had also been considered a potential IPO candidate, was sold to the British private equity firm CapVest at the beginning of September. Ottobock is now taking advantage of the momentum created by several other European IPOs: Noba Bank is planning its IPO in Stockholm, and the SMG Swiss Marketplace Group has just listed on the Swiss SIX exchange.

In the Ottobock IPO, the Näder family, which owns the company, primarily plans to sell existing shares. In addition, 100 million euros are to be raised through a capital increase by issuing new shares. The company aims to gain additional financial flexibility with this, for example to settle liabilities from incentive programs and to finance future technology investments.

Ottobock sees itself as a global market leader, counts the U.S. military among its customers, and generated 1.4 billion euros in revenue in 2024 with 9,300 employees. The adjusted operating profit before depreciation (Ebitda) was 320 million euros, with an adjusted Ebitda margin of 22.4%. In the first half of the year, revenue increased by 14% to 760 million euros, while adjusted Ebitda grew by one third to 175 million euros.