Lenzing's €300 Million Rights Issue Draws 99% Take-Up, With Trading Set for October 23

Lenzing has cleared the subscription stage of its €300 million capital increase, with preliminary results showing existing holders exercised rights over 34,411,626 new shares — a take-up rate of 99.0%. The fully underwritten cash capital increase, announced roughly three weeks ago, carries a subscription price of EUR 8.65 per share and a subscription ratio of 10 to 9.

The offer covered 34,756,362 new shares in total. Core shareholders B&C-Gruppe and Suzano S.A. subscribed to 18,159,291 of them between them, while Oberbank took 1,344,177. That concentration is worth reading carefully: subscription by existing investors is not the same as fresh demand in the open market, and the two should not be conflated.

Any shares left unsubscribed are to be placed by the syndicate banks at no less than EUR 8.65 apiece. Admission of all new shares to the Prime Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange is expected on October 23, subject to registration of the capital increase in the commercial register. Until that entry is made, the financing is not formally complete.

Insiders Join the Queue

A mandatory disclosure published as the subscription period closed showed Oberbank exercising rights; the bank is a person closely associated with supervisory board member Martin Seiter. CEO Georg Kasperkovitz and board member Christian Skilich had already exercised their own rights. Their participation belongs to the financing story, not to any judgment on trading.

Proceeds are earmarked to shore up the balance sheet and support the "Grow Nonwovens, Reset Textiles" strategy. That stated purpose links the raise to the company's strategic direction — but raising money and spending it well are separate questions, and neither the take-up rate nor the guarantee speaks to revenue, profit or margins.

Berenberg's Yardstick

The more demanding test came from Berenberg, which cut its rating to "Hold" from "Buy" about three weeks ago. Analyst Sebastian Bray trimmed his price target to EUR 17.00 from EUR 29.50. His reasoning had nothing to do with shareholder appetite for new stock. Higher cotton and viscose prices, in his view, had not fed through to Lenzing's results to the extent he had expected. Berenberg now models a 2026 loss per share of EUR 1.62, compared with EUR 0.57 previously — a forecast from the research house, not a reported figure.

Denim and a Wider Loom Network

On the product side, Lenzing unveiled its REMOD collection with Japanese denim maker Kaihara around a fortnight ago, alongside a further generation of partner weavers for TENCEL Lyocell HV100. That network now spans close to 50 mills across 13 countries, according to the company.

The two strands — capital strengthening and product development — run on separate tracks. One secures the balance sheet; the other extends the partner base. What happens after October 23 is whether the reinforced capital structure can help deliver the strategy, and whether earnings start to reflect it.