Australia’s Firmus expects $77 million first-half loss as it plans $5 billion IPO, sources say

By Christine Chen SYDNEY, Sept 24 (Reuters) Australian data centre operator Firmus expects to lose $77 million in the current half, according to two people familiar with a draft prospectus, as the firm prepares ​for a $5 billion initial public offering to fund growth. Firmus, which is ‌backed by investors including Blackstone and counts Nvidia, Meta and OpenAI as customers, is due to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 22. The IPO would be the second largest ever in Australia, ranked behind Telstra s $10 billion listing in 1997, according ‌to ​Dealogic data. Firmus could be valued at up ⁠to $60 billion after the IPO, ⁠according to local media reports. The share sale will test investor appetite for companies building infrastructure to meet demand for the computing power behind the artificial intelligence boom, analysts say. Firmus expects to report a loss after ​tax of $77 million for the first half of the financial year ending June 30, 2027, on a pro forma