A data centre operator was meant to list on the ASX this month.
It was set to be the second largest listing in Australian history.
Today, it withdrew its application.
The Australian data centre operator Firmus will no longer list on Australia’s stock exchange later this month.
The company said the late withdrawal was due to “recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions”.
The listing would have been the second biggest in Australian history, behind Telstra’s in 1997.
Here’s what you need to know.
Firmus
Firmus is an Australian data centre operator founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee.
Curtis was sentenced to prison in 2016 for insider trading.
He is the husband of Roxy Jacenko, a former PR businesswoman.
Firmus’ latest round of funding valued the company above $15 billion.
Firmus currently operates data centres in Melbourne and Singapore, with a Tasmanian site in development.
It has more planned in Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in Australia.
The company has received investments from Nvidia and Blackstone, and its clients include Meta and OpenAI.
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IPO
Talk of Firmus “going public” has been around since at least June 2025.
When a company goes public, it sells shares to investors and lists them on a stock exchange, where anyone can buy and sell them.
This is called an initial public offering (IPO).
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Firmus had set an IPO date of 23 October.
It aimed to raise $7 billion at a valuation of $44 billion.
This would have been the second biggest IPO in Australia, after Telstra’s in 1997.
Withdrawal
On 9 October, Firmus announced that it would not IPO due to “recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions”.
Firmus initially set a target share price of $11.
According to the Australian Financial Review, not enough investors were willing to buy at that price, and the target fell as low as $8.25.
Firmus said this new price “would not appropriately reflect the strength of the company's business and long-term growth outlook”, which led it to withdraw its application.
It will instead raise money from “private markets and consider alternative public and private market options.”
Potential investors had previously shared concerns about Firmus’ revenue goals being unreachable and potentially large amounts of debt, amid broader fears of an AI bubble (where financial valuations and investment amounts into a sector no longer align with the actual revenue and growth potential in that space).
