As Wirtschaftswoche reports, the Munich HR startup Personio will first convert from a GmbH to a Societas Europaea (SE). This step is intended to create the conditions for an IPO.
“With the legal form of a European public company, we are ready for the capital market”,
says CEO and co-founder Hanno Renner to Wirtschaftswoche.
“Our clear goal is the IPO, with the earliest possible date being the end of 2024.”
Personio: IPO in Germany planned
Renner prefers the German stock market as the listing location. However, he expects that disadvantages of Germany as a stock market location will be eliminated by the time of the IPO. As an example, he cites the principle of “one share, one vote”, which can be deviated from in the US. He says:
“There must be the possibility of different voting rights classes in order to be able to prevent any hostile takeover.”
Personio was founded in 2015 by Hanno Renner, Roman Schumacher, Arseniy Vershinin, and Ignaz Forstmeier. The Munich startup offers HR software for small and medium-sized companies. Since January 2021, the company has broken through the barrier of a valuation of 1 billion dollars and is thus counted among unicorn startups. In addition to Munich, Personio also has offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, Dublin, Barcelona, and Amsterdam.
