Kamis, 02 Oktober 2014

Germany’s Samwer Brothers Suffer Two Disappointing IPOs

“I am the most aggressive guy on internet on the planet,” German tech entrepreneur Oliver Samwer once declared in an e-mail to colleagues, adding, “I will die to win and i expect the same from you!” Clearly prone to extreme emotion, Samwer may be feeling a bit angsty today following the disappointing debut of his company Rocket Internet (RKET:GR) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Oliver and his brothers Marc and Alexander are known for cloning several American e-commerce businesses and efficiently rolling out replicas in international markets. Over the years, they’ve knocked off EBay (EBAY), Zappos (AMZN), Groupon (GRPN), EHarmony, Pinterest, Fab, Airbnb, and many more.

The Samwer clone machine, Rocket Internet—which bills itself as “the world’s largest incubator”—employs about 20,000 people (PDF) in more than 100 countries worldwide. Its much hyped initial public offering was priced at $2 billion, giving Rocket a market value of about $6.7 billion. But during the first minutes of trading, the stock slipped almost 14 percent, from €42.50 ($53.86) to €36.66, before recovering a bit to reach €40.

The Samwers have lost a combined $170 million as of trading at 1 p.m. in Frankfurt, according to Bloomberg. The brothers’ billionaire partners in the deal—who include the U.S.’s Len Blavatnik and Russia’s Yuri Milner—are down a combined $562 million.

The Rocket news follows a similarly disappointing IPO for Samwer e-tailer Zalando (ZAL:GR) one day earlier. Shares remained unchanged after the first day of trading—a stark contrast to Alibaba, which saw a 38 percent first-day gain, according to Bloomberg.

Still, Oliver says he’s not worried. “One must take the long view and not judge a stock by one day, one week, or one month,” he told German broadcaster N-TV. The brothers own roughly 40 percent of Rocket and about 15 percent of Zalando.

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