Deezer, A Rival To Spotify, Plans To Raise $343M In French IPO

French music-streaming service Deezer has announced that it plans to raise €300 million ($343 million) in a public listing that will take place in its native France at the end of this month.

The company, which competes with Spotify, Apple and others, filed for an IPO on the Paris-based stock exchange Euronext last month, and now it has confirmed further details about that listing. Deezer will create 8,241,758 new shares that it expects to be offered for between €36.40 and €49.24 per share. The company said on a call with investors that it estimates its valuation after the new capital could be between €884 million and €1.088 billion (between $1 billion to $1.24 billion).

Deezer is going to offer its shares for both domestic and international investors via a domestic subscription, which will close end of day October 26, and an international one, which is scheduled to close one day later. Both are open as of today.

The company said that, all going well, it plans to begin trading as ‘DZR’ on the Euronext from October 30.

Deezer was founded in 2007 and it claims 6.3 million customers from across 180 countries, as of June 2015. Of that number, the company said 1.5 million are paying customers while the remaining 4.8 million are “bundle subscribers” brought in via partners. These users are getting the premium, paid-for Deezer service through an offer via a telecom partner.. (In other words, most of those using Deezer’s premium service are not paying for it… but the company hopes they will migrate to become direct, paying customers once their bundled deals conclude.)

The French company has differentiated itself from Spotify by going after a more global market and working closely with carriers. Indeed, its focus on lesser trod market is embodied by the fact that only the high-definition version of its service is available in the U.S. at this point.

Deezer made €142 million ($163 million) in revenue for 2014, but carded a €27 million ($31 million) loss for the period. It said the proceeds of the listing will go towards growing its customer base through media and marketing, promotions of its free-tier service, and working with operators and other distribution partners.

When it comes to public listings for music streaming services, most of the expectation has been at Spotify’s door. The Swedish firm has long ben speculated to list publicly — last year, in particular. But an apparent $526 million round, which included a $115 million investment from Telia Sonera, raised this summer — which was confirmed by the telecom firm, but not Spotify — seems to have put those plans on the back burner for now.

Note: The original headline was updated to reflect the correct EUR-USD conversion.