German Optics Group to Go Public

Linos AG of Göttingen, Germany, said it completed an initial public stock offering in September. Linos offered 1.4 million shares at €27 per share, with HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA and Norddeutsche Landesbank serving as lead managers. Included were 155,000 shares by an existing shareholder and private placements offered to institutional investors. The stock is listed on the Neuer Markt in Frankfurt. CEO Gerd Litfin said the company allocated 54,000 shares of company stock to key personnel in an effort to retain workers.

The Linos group was formed in 1996 as a strategic alliance of precision optical companies. The group serves OEM manufacturers in laser materials processing, semiconductor/microlithography, optical metrology markets and end users in universities and research laboratories.