Deezer targeting Apple and Spotify with IPO

“The introduction in the stock market will enable us to accelerate our growth and continue to play a major role in the vanguard of the musical revolution which streaming offers”, he said in a statement.

Deezer and its rivals represent a shift in the music industry, away from buying and downloading tracks to listening online to songs stored remotely.

After filing for an IPO on Euronext in September, it has further revealed that it will offer 8,241,758 new shares at anywhere between €36.40 and €49.24 per share, leading to a worth between €300 million and €406 million. Announcing the firm’s intention to sell shares to the public, chief executive Hans-Holger Albrecht on Tuesday said the music-streaming market “is growing faster now and is set to become the main means of music distribution”.

Deezer now has 16 million monthly active users and 6 million paying subscribers, a measly amount compared to Spotify’s 75 million active users and more than 20 million spaying for its premium service.

Music streaming site Deezer is seeking at least €300 million in a Paris IPO valuing it at as much as €1.1 billion.

Investors in the IPO will own between 27.7% and 39.1% of the post-IPO share float, depending on the price of the shares and on whether the greenshoe is used.

Deezer completed its last round of funding back in 2012, raising €100 million ($US110 million, £70 million) from billionaire Leonard Blavatnik’s Access Industries and Idinvest Partners.

The subscription period for shares will end Octpber 26 for the French public and the following day for worldwide investors, Deezer said.

Present in 180 countries but with the bulk of its clients in France, a few 4.8 million of Deezer’s paying customers get access because the service is bundled with their mobile service from telecom operators like Orange, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom.

BNP Paribas and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners for the IPO.