Kinnevik pulls out of Rocket Internet entirely

Swedish investment group Kinnevik has decided to pull out of German incubator Rocket Internet entirely, selling off its 6.6 % stake.

Rocket Internet’s lower stock value

The news broke in February that Kinnevik had already sold about half of its Rocket Internet’s shares, promising not sell any other shares in the subsequent ninety days. Now that that timeframe has passed, it will sell its remaining stake. The group has been a part of Rocket Internet for a long time and even has shares in several of the company’s subsidiaries. It is Zalando’s largest shareholder for instance.

Kinnevik’s departure is bad news for Rocket Internet, because the German group’s solvency has now taken a hit. The company’s slide on the Frankfurt stock exchange is probably the reason Kinnevik wanted to pull out, demonstrated by the fact that Kinnevik’s announcement hammered the share another 4 %.

The Swedish firm generated 209 million euro with the previous sale and will probably get a similar amount for its remaining 6.6 %.