TK Elevator Eyes Frankfurt IPO at Up to $29 Billion Valuation in Second Half of 2026

What's on the Table

TK Elevator (TKE), the Düsseldorf-based vertical transportation company that Thyssenkrupp AG sold off in 2020, is working toward a Frankfurt stock exchange listing that could rank among the largest European IPOs in recent years.

According to AK&M, which cited foreign media reports, the share placement could reach a valuation of 25 billion euros ($29 billion) and is targeted for the second half of 2026.

Five banks are acting as global organizers: Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and UBS. Rothschild & Co. and Lilja & Co. are advising the two main private equity shareholders, Advent and Cinven, on the listing process.

The Company's Own Position

TK Elevator issued a formal media statement through EQS News on March 31, 2026, confirming that shareholders are "setting the course for the future of the company" but were explicit: "No decision has yet been taken. An initial public offering (IPO) is one of the strategic options."

Bank mandates being assigned and IPO being a confirmed outcome are two different things. The AK&M framing leans toward treating the listing as a done deal, while TKE's own statement does not.

Who Owns TK Elevator Now

The ownership structure matters here. In 2020, Thyssenkrupp sold TKE to a consortium — Advent, Cinven, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Singapore's GIC, and the German RAG Foundation — for 17.2 billion euros, according to AK&M.

In 2025, Alat, a company owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, acquired a 15% stake in TKE at a total enterprise valuation of 23 billion euros including debt. That transaction sets a recent market baseline.

A 25 billion euro IPO valuation would represent a meaningful step up from that 23 billion euro figure. Whether public market investors agree with that number will be the central question an IPO process answers.

The Business Itself

TK Elevator is not a speculative startup. The company reported sales of 9.3 billion euros in fiscal year 2024/2025, according to AK&M. The EQS statement puts the figure at 9.2 billion euros — a rounding difference between sources, not a material discrepancy.

The company employs roughly 50,000 people, including 25,000 service technicians operating out of more than 1,000 support centers globally, according to TKE's own statement. It manufactures passenger and freight elevators, escalators, moving walkways, passenger boarding bridges, stairlifts, and platform lifts, and runs a substantial maintenance and modernization business.

Recent business development has included acquiring Canadian firm City Elevator Co., signing a service contract in 2025 with Danske Statsbaner (Denmark's largest railway operator), and the Kone Oyj-related acquisition activity in 2021, per AK&M.

The Case for Skepticism

Private equity firms have a straightforward interest in an IPO: it is how Advent and Cinven exit an investment they have held for six years. That doesn't make the listing bad for public investors, but it does mean the price being discussed is the sellers' preferred price. Public market buyers will run their own numbers on a business with nearly 10 billion euros in annual revenue against a proposed 25 billion euro valuation — roughly a 2.7x price-to-sales multiple — and decide whether that's fair in the current rate environment.

European IPO markets have been cautious since 2022. Several high-profile listings were pulled or repriced. TKE's management and the banks involved will need to make a compelling case to institutional investors, not just announce a number.

What Happens Next

With the IPO window targeted for the second half of 2026, TK Elevator and its advisors would typically file a preliminary prospectus with German financial regulators (BaFin) and begin a formal investor roadshow in the weeks before pricing. No prospectus filing date has been publicly announced as of June 25, 2026.

The unresolved question is whether public investors will close the gap between Alat's 2025 entry price at a 23 billion euro enterprise value and the reported 25 billion euro IPO target, or push back hard enough that shareholders scale down expectations to get the deal done.