Deezer famously abandoned its plans for an IPO in 2015, but seven years on it has finally gone public – through that most 2022 of mechanisms, a ‘SPAC’ merger. A day for celebration? Well, the champagne may have tasted slightly flat once the market’s first-day verdict was delivered.
Deezer opened trading on the Euronext Paris exchange at €8.50 per share ($8.72) before the price dived by 35%, recovering to €6.52 later in the morning. A bumpy first day, although as ever with this kind of listing, the true verdict will be delivered over weeks and months, not hours.
Deezer, of course, will be looking to the positive. Its merger with a company called I2PO included €143m of new funding: a combination of cash held by that company, and ‘PIPE’ (Private Investment in Public Equity, when investors buy shares from a public company below market price) involving existing backers including Access Industries, Universal Music, Warner Music and Orange.
“Through merging with I2PO and going public, we have created a solid foundation to execute our strategic plan, with the right capital, expertise, and network,” was CEO Jeronimo Folgueira’s pitch. “With a highly competitive product, a clear strategy, and a renewed and experienced management team, we will make the most of this opportunity to create substantial shareholder value.”
The early performance of Deezer’s shares suggests investors will take a bit more convincing. We reported in April on the figures revealed by Deezer’s SPAC announcement. It showed that the company added 0.2 million net new subscribers in 2021, while its revenues grew by 5.5% that year to €400m – 60.7% of which came from its homeland, France.
Still, now the listing is done, Deezer will be focusing on proving to investors that it can accelerate its growth, and compete against much-bigger rivals in various parts of the world. As a public company, we’ll now have quarterly updates on how that’s going. And, of course, a real-time and sometimes brutally honest metric – the share price – to gauge investors’ responses.
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