Thyssenkrupp Nucera's operating profit down on IPO prep costs

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany's Thyssenkrupp on Friday said that Nucera, its joint venture with Italy's De Nora, saw its operating profit fall by two-thirds, citing costs related to preparations for a potential stock market listing and growth investments.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the business, which Thyssenkrupp said might go public via an initial public offering (IPO) at some point, fell to 9 million euros ($9.4 million) in the 2021/22 fiscal year ending September.

This was partly due to a "mid-single digit euro million amount of non-recurring IPO preparation costs", Thyssenkrupp said in presentation slides, published as part of a capital markets update a week after full-year results.

The slides also showed that sales for the division increased by a fifth, to 383 million euros, for an EBIT margin of 2.4%, down from 8.4%. Order intake for the year more than tripled to 1.34 billion euros, while backlog stands at 1.5 billion.

Nucera, which is active in alkaline water electrolysis - a key requirement for the generation of hydrogen produced via renewable energy - initially aimed for an IPO in spring but had to indefinitely delay the move due to volatile capital markets.

($1 = 0.9622 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Rachel More and Miranda Murray)