FRANKFURT, Germany (Feb. 2)—Trading of Lanxess A.G. shares began Jan. 31 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, with a share of the Bayer A.G. spinoff ending the first day's activity at $18.60, or slightly higher than what analysts had been forecasting.
Shares of Lanxess opened the first day at $20.48 but traded throughout most of the day in the $17 to $19 range. Shares closed at $19.50 on Feb. 2, capitalizing the firm at about $1.4 billion.
Lanxess went to market with slightly more than 73 million shares. Bayer shareholders received one share of Lanxess for every 10 Bayer shares held.
According to sales figures for 2003, Lanxess is the sixth-largest listed chemicals company in Europe. Sales in the first nine months of 2004 amounted to about $6.5 billion.