FRANKFURT/LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Shares in hydrogen firm Thyssenkrupp Nucera rose on their Frankfurt market debut on Friday after completing Germany's largest initial public offering (IPO) so far this year, in an encouraging sign for Europe's capital markets.
The shares were last trading at 20.98 euros ($22.80), up from the 20 euros paid by investors in the IPO.
Nucera is a joint venture between Germany's Thyssenkrupp and Italy's De Nora.
"The IPO is the start of an exciting new phase in our company's history," Nucera CEO Werner Ponikwar said during the opening ceremony at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, adding that the firm would "accelerate the adoption of green hydrogen".
Nucera's IPO is Germany's largest this year after web hosting firm IONOS listed its shares in February.
It is also part of a wave of companies in Europe rushing to list before the summer lull in what bankers hope will herald a stronger market recovery in the months ahead.
Unlike most recent European IPOs, Nucera is seeing its shares hold up in secondary trading, suggesting investor appetite for new issues may be coming back after rocketing interest rates all but froze the market last year.
Energy transition has been a theme in many recent IPOs, including those of EuroGroup Laminations in Italy and Hidroelectrica in Romania.
"While the company still needs to reach profitability, investors bought into the company's technology and strong growth prospects for its green hydrogen business," Christof Muerb, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, one of the banks that led Nucera's IPO.
So-called green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and has been hailed as a potential route to a cleaner future for hard to decarbonise sectors, although the industry is in its infancy.
Nucera offers technology to produce hydrogen via water electrolysis.
($1 = 0.9197 euros)
Reporting by Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Editing by Miranda Murray and Mark Potter
Source: Reuters