The job portal will soon be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
(Photo: obs)
Munich According to an insider, the media group Axel Springer wants to bring its job advertisement portal Stepstone to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the coming year. Stepstone is to be valued at around seven billion euros, as a person familiar with the plans told Reuters news agency on Friday. Springer has commissioned the French investment bank Rothschild with the preparations.
The “Financial Times” had previously reported on the project. The issue, which should reach billions in volume, should go through the stage in the first half of the year, said the insider. Its main competitor, Indeed, is owned by Recruit Holdings, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Stepstone’s IPO would be the first opportunity for US financial investor KKR, which joined Springer in 2019, to create additional value. At that time, the entire group, including debts, was valued at nine billion euros. KKR is now the largest Springer shareholder with 35.6 percent, followed by the publisher’s widow Friede Springer, CEO Mathias Döpfner (21.9 percent) and the Canadian co-investor CPPIB (12.9 percent).
According to its own information, Stepstone publishes 600,000 job advertisements from 120,000 employers each year and processes around 100 million applications. The company employs 3,500 people in more than 30 countries. Axel Springer had gradually acquired the originally Norwegian company until 2009 – for a valuation of 137 million euros.
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The Berlin media group had been involved in the Germany subsidiary since 2004. The takeover followed Döpfner’s strategy of investing in technologies and companies that could replace the classic classifieds business of newspapers. Stepstone has grown by 20 percent a year over the past few years, the insider said.
Axel Springer did not want to comment on the information. A Stepstone spokesman said the platform will continue to benefit from the increasing shortage of skilled workers in the future. “In order to support our sustainable growth course, we are continuously examining all possible options.”
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