tk accelis debuts in Frankfurt at a €1.77bn valuation as thyssenkrupp completes its spin-off
The former Materials Services division, with €11.4 billion in annual sales and about 15,500 staff, is now listed on the Prime Standard. thyssenkrupp keeps a 51% stake as it turns itself into a financial holding.
tk accelis, the materials distribution and supply chain business of thyssenkrupp, started trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Wednesday 28 October. Deutsche Börse said the first price of the share was €27.80 and that the company is listed on the Prime Standard under the ticker TKCC.
According to Reuters, as published by onvista, that first price valued the company at €1.77 billion, and the share later climbed as high as €30.52. thyssenkrupp said the listing completes the spin-off and that it remains the majority shareholder with a 51% stake.
How the spin-off worked
tk accelis did not sell new shares to raise money. Instead, existing thyssenkrupp shareholders received the shares directly: Reuters reports that one tk accelis share was booked into their accounts for every 20 thyssenkrupp shares they held. Each tk accelis share carries voting rights and an entitlement to dividends, thyssenkrupp said.
Citigroup and Deutsche Bank acted as financial advisers and listing agents, with BBVA, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole CIB and IMI Intesa Sanpaolo also in the syndicate, according to Deutsche Börse. Baader Bank is the designated sponsor for Xetra trading.
Reuters reported that thyssenkrupp's own share fell 8.6% to €13.41 on the day, which reflects the value that left the group. Taken together with the new tk accelis shares, Reuters calculated that the value of a thyssenkrupp shareholder's holdings rose by about 2%. Analysts at Jefferies had earlier put the value of tk accelis at €2.1 billion to €4.1 billion, so the opening valuation came in below that range.
What tk accelis does
tk accelis is the former thyssenkrupp Materials Services division. It distributes and processes metals and other materials and offers supply chain services, which it markets as "Materials-as-a-Service". Reuters reports that it employs about 15,500 people in 30 countries, and Deutsche Börse says it operates from 400 locations worldwide. thyssenkrupp chief executive Miguel López called the listing the "beginning of a new chapter", according to Reuters (translated from German).
The business is large but runs on thin margins. thyssenkrupp's release gives sales of €11.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA of €229 million for the 2024/25 financial year, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 2.0%. In the first nine months of 2025/26, sales were €9.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA €256 million, a margin of 2.8%. The company notes that adjusted EBITDA is based on unaudited, condensed combined financial statements.
Targets and strategy
Over the medium term, tk accelis is aiming for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4% to 5% and sales growth of more than 4% a year. The company names three levers: growth in higher-margin businesses with a greater services component, expansion in North America, and disciplined efficiency measures. It points to aerospace, data centres, industrial electrification and defence as fast-growing customer sectors, and cites independent analyses that expect its market to grow from about €800 billion in 2024 to about €1,000 billion by 2030.
"Now that we are an independent company, we have greater flexibility," chief executive Ilse Henne said in the company statement. She said the company can now invest the capital it generates more directly in high-margin growth areas.
Part of a bigger break-up
For thyssenkrupp, this is the third listing of a business in its portfolio. Chief executive Miguel López said in the release that it follows the listings of hydrogen specialist thyssenkrupp nucera and naval shipbuilder TKMS, and is a step towards turning the industrial conglomerate into a "lean financial holding".
There is one technical detail for index investors. tk accelis was included in the MDAX for one day only, so that index funds have time to sell shares they received but cannot hold. Reuters reports that investment banks expect 10% to 15% of tk accelis shares may need to be placed with new owners as a result, which can weigh on a newly spun-off stock in its first weeks.
What it means for founders and investors
The listing is not a classic IPO, but it shows how Europe's large industrial groups are trying to unlock value: by separating units and letting the market price them on their own. Germany has seen several of these carve-outs, and they create new, independent buyers and partners with their own budgets and strategies.
For startups in logistics software, procurement, industrial AI and supply chain visibility, that matters. A materials distributor with €11 billion in sales that says it wants to grow its service business and lift margins is a natural customer for tools that cut cost, improve forecasting or add digital services on top of physical products. Its focus on data centres, electrification and defence also lines up with sectors where European startups are raising large rounds.
For investors, the first-day valuation below the Jefferies range is a reminder that low-margin businesses have to prove their improvement plans before the market pays up. The next reports will show whether the margin path to 4% to 5% is on track. More coverage of European capital markets is on our Europe page, including our report on Abenójar Tungsten's London IPO.
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