BERLIN, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The initial public offering (IPO) of Traton, the commercial vehicle subsidiary of Volkswagen, got off to a bumpy start on Friday as shares dropped below their starting price of 27 euros.
On Thursday, Volkswagen only set the initial trading price for Traton shares at the bottom end of the price range of 27 and 33 euros which the German carmaker had determined in mid-June.
"The important thing is that we made it, despite this market environment," Traton CEO Andreas Renschler commented on the IPO. "That was one of the big goals and we are very proud of it."
Through the IPO, Volkswagen received gross proceeds of around 1.55 billion euros (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) from the placement of the Traton shares. Two weeks ago, the German car maker had targeted revenues of up to 1.9 billion euros.
Following the IPO, only 11.5 percent of all Traton shares are now in free float and Volkswagen is remaining the largest shareholder.
Traton comprises the commercial vehicle manufacturers Scania from Sweden, MAN from Germany and the Brazilian subsidiary Volkswagen Caminhoes e Onibus with around 81,000 employees worldwide. In 2018, the company generated sales of around 25.9 billion euros, of which Scania contributed the lion's share.
Volkswagen had initially planned to take Traton public in March but postponed the scheduled IPO due to a "difficult market environment".
Shares of Traton's parent company Volkswagen were not affected by the bumpy start on the stock market on Friday. Volkswagen shares remained virtually unchanged in the German stock index DAX throughout the day.
