Germany’s Rocket Internet is bringing its planned initial public offering (IPO) forward by a week, citing “exceptional investor demand across all points of the price range” for its shares.

The e-commerce investment group said yesterday the offer period, which started on Wednesday, would end next Wednesday morning for institutional investors, while private investors would have until the end of that business day to subscribe. The first day of trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is slated for Thursday and settlement is planned for October 6th.

Rocket, riding the coattails of last week’s successful listing by Chinese rival Alibaba, earlier this week doubled the amount it planned to raise in the share sale to €1.48 billion, and the listing became fully subscribed within the first hour of taking orders. – (Reuters)