After all these rumors, the official announcement has arrived. Spotify, the American streaming music giant, has sent the Securities and Exchange Commission (the American Consob) a request for "direct quotation” on the Nyse, with the aim of selling securities up to one billion dollars. The difference with a traditional IPO is that, with this method, no road show is envisaged, nor is the issue of new securities. But above all, there will be no investment bank in charge of the sale of the securities, which will be offered directly on the Stock Exchange.
The company explained that it had chosen this path because "quoting ordinary shares on the NYSE without an underwriter is a new method to start listings". The placement price will be determined by the buy and sell orders collected by the broker-dealers. If registered shareholders, such as CEO Daniel Ek and co-founder Martin Lorentzon, choose to sell stocks, Spotify will not receive any gains.
According to the company, leader in the US ahead of Apple Misic, the group's shares were traded privately at $132,5 each: a figure that would determine a valuation of Spotify in excess of 23 billion dollars.
From the document filed with the SEC it emerges that in 2017 Spotify produced a turnover of 4,09 billion euros, up sharply compared to 2,952 billion in the previous year and 1,940 billion in 2015. However, the last financial year ended anyway with a loss of 1,24 billion euros, a more serious red than those recorded in 2016 (539 million) and 2015 (230 million).
According to the numbers released by the group, Spotify could count on last December 31st 159 millions of active users, of which 71 million premium (i.e. paying).
Also according to the rumors that refer to the documents filed with the Sec, Spotify will land on the stock exchange with the SPOT symbol.
