FRANKFURT/MONTABAUR (dpa-AFX) - Internet services provider and telecoms group United Internet is considering launching an initial public offering of its hosting subsidiary Ionos next week, according to sources. The company has held early talks with fund managers to get a feel for demand, news agency Bloomberg reported Thursday evening, citing people in the know. A company spokeswoman declined to comment when asked Friday. However, news of the possible imminent IPO went down well with investors.

United Internet shares rose by a good three percent to 22.09 euros shortly after the start of trading on Friday. They thus continued their recovery, which has been underway since mid-December. In 2022, they had been among the bigger losers in the mid-cap MDax index with a drop of around 46 percent.

With its initial listing in Frankfurt, Ionos would bring movement back into the European market for IPOs after months of radio silence. Digital group United Internet had announced in September that it would list Ionos on the stock exchange.

However, high inflation and increased interest rates had weighed heavily on share prices in general in recent months, bringing the IPO market to a virtual standstill.

As reported by Bloomberg in December, United Internet is hoping for an Ionos valuation of up to five billion euros. The financial investor Warburg Pincus also has a stake in Ionos. Ionos offers website hosting, cloud storage and web servers, among other services.

Ionos came to a turnover of 1.06 billion euros in 2021, which corresponds to just under a fifth of the revenues of the entire group. The division employs more than 4000 people, according to the company. The company offers its customers cloud products in addition to domain and web hosting./men/ngu/mis/jha/