After the Firmus IPO cancelled on Friday, co-founder Oliver Curtis told The Australian the collapse was a loss for the country, not the company. Fund managers who were in the book say the price killed it.
Curtis was doorstopped in Singapore, where he now lives. “I’m not going to get into what I think is a great loss for Australia,” he said. He also called it “a missed opportunity for Australia to be brutally honest,” and said what happened over the last 48 hours “makes no difference to my business.” He described the decision to pull the listing as “another chapter.”
The offer had been priced at A$11 a share, implying an equity value around A$44 billion, and was due to list on 23 October. It would have been the second-largest IPO in Australian history, after Telstra in 1997. Firmus withdrew on Friday, citing market volatility, and said it would look for private capital.
Who backed the Firmus IPO cancelled line
Wilson Asset Management portfolio manager Oscar Oberg, whose firm was an early investor and a loud supporter, told Capital Brief on Friday that risk appetite is the problem. “Doesn’t matter what your view is on Firmus,” he said. “There’s just no risk appetite in the Australian market.”
Other fund managers contacted by Capital Brief rejected that. They said the failure was not evidence that the ASX is too conservative, and not a loss for the exchange. The book died on the valuation, the debt and the halls still to be built. One Capital Brief headline put the reply as: he’d love to have that comment back.
What the pull actually changes
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Nick Bonyhady wrote that Curtis is wrong that the last 48 hours make no difference. The money that was going to come from the float stays in other people’s pockets. That means fewer chips, and a smaller or slower Firmus.
The company is not out of cash. It has billions in debt financing from Blackstone, and a Meta commitment to buy computing power from a planned centre in Indonesia. It plans to raise more from existing investors and look at a listing overseas. A person involved in the deal told Reuters the private round would be followed by Nasdaq. Firmus has not confirmed that.
The partner walk still sits under the price. CDC Data Centres said on Monday that Project Southgate, the plan to build 1.6 gigawatts of AI factories with Firmus, was no longer going ahead. About 42 megawatts was delivered, in a CDC hall in Melbourne. Firmus is continuing the build without CDC. Investors pulled orders after that news, and after being told more than half the stock could be sold by existing holders from day one.
Curtis stopped short of saying tall-poppy syndrome. The fund managers did not need him to. Their version is simpler. Australia did not lose a champion. It declined to pay A$44 billion for one that is mostly still a plan.
