Soda ash giant eyes London targets $7.5B valuation

 

WE Soda, the world's largest natural soda ash producer, plans to go public in London at a $7.5B valuation.  Despite declining IPO proceeds, London's Europe-centric focus and U.K. base persuaded the company to choose it over New York. WE Soda believes there are advantages to attracting attention by going public while others are not, despite current worries about the London market. The Ciner Group's wholly-owned WE Soda produced $838M in core adjusted earnings on $1.8B in revenue in 2022. After the IPO, Turgay Ciner will keep around two-thirds of the company, and it has plans to invest $5B to increase manufacturing capacity and keep up with demand. Due to the demand for solar panels and the manufacturing of lithium carbonate, soda ash consumption is anticipated to rise to 81 million tonnes by 2030, favoring WE Soda's production technique, which has lower carbon emissions than synthetic soda ash. BNP Paribas SA, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and JPMorgan are global coordinators, while Deutsche Bank AG, Liberum, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, and Numis Corp. are book-runners on the offering.