* Flotation planned on Frankfurt stock exchange
* Siemens to offer investors existing Healthineers shares
* Siemens says to float “significant” minority stake (Adds additional banks, background)
FRANKFURT, Feb 19 (Reuters) - German engineering group Siemens said on Monday it planned to list its medical imaging and diagnostics business Healthineers on the Frankfurt stock exchange in the first half of 2018, offering investors existing shares in the firm.
The initial public offering (IPO) of Healthineers, which makes X-ray and MRI machines, is expected to value the business at about 40 billion euros ($50 billion)and will likely be Germany’s biggest listing since the privatisation of Deutsche Telekom in 1996.
The announcement comes as global equities rebound from a tumultuous start of the month.
“Siemens Healthineers is now ready for its market debut,” Michael Sen, chairman of the Healthineers supervisory board and member of the Siemens managing board said in a statement.
German trains-to-turbines group Siemens said it plans to list a “significant” minority stake of Healthineers, without specifying how many shares it would offer.
Sources had told Reuters last week that Siemens would sell a stake in Healthineers of no more than 20 percent, and that proceeds from the listing would flow to Siemens, rather than its Healthineers unit.
Investment banks Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan will act as joint global coordinators for the listing, helped by BNP Paribas, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS.
Berenberg, Commerzbank, HSBC, Jefferies, Nordea, RBC and UniCredit have been appointed as Co-Lead Managers.
Healthineers, which competes with units of Philips and General Electric and increasingly with a host of smaller technology companies, plans a dividend payout ratio of 50 to 60 pct of net profit once it is listed, Siemens said. ($1 = 0.8065 euros) (Reporting by Edward Taylor and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)