Rocket brings IPO forward due to "exceptional" demand

By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - 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 on Friday the offer period, which started on Wednesday, would now end at 1100 GMT on Oct. 1 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 Oct. 2 and settlement is planned for Oct. 6.

Rocket, riding the coattails of last week's successful listing by Chinese rival Alibaba , earlier this week doubled the amount of money it planned to raise in the share sale to 1.48 billion euros ($1.9 billion), and the listing became fully subscribed within the first hour of taking orders.

Founded in 2007 by brothers Oliver, Alexander and Marc Samwer, Rocket has set up e-commerce sites and online marketplaces for everything from taxis to meal deliveries in more than 100 countries. Its companies made about $1 billion in revenues last year.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Mark Potter)