Schaeffler will offer investors up to 166 million non-voting shares, of which 100 million would be existing stock owned by a holding company of the Schaeffler family and 66 million would be new shares from the operating business, Schaeffler AG.

The maker of ball bearings and automotive parts will rearrange about 3.6 billion euros ($4.05 billion) of debt as it seeks to reduce its liabilities with the share-sale proceeds, according to statements published today on its website.

Its roller-bearings are used in the London Eye Ferris wheel and Airbus A380 double-decker. During the first half of 2015 revenues grew 4.9 percent at constant currency and 12.4 percent including the impact of currency translation.

“Over the last years we have consistently focused the Schaeffler Group towards the capital markets”.

By 2018, Schaeffler plans reduce its debt to less than 1.5 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), Rosenfeld said.

The shares to be sold in the offering will not have voting rights, allowing the family to retain control.

The debt is a legacy of Schaeffler’s attempt to buy Continental in 2008, a deal that unravelled during the financial crisis although the family still owns 46 percent of the company. “As shareholders we will take responsibility to further successfully develop our company in the interest of our customers, our suppliers, and our many employees”, said Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann, shareholder and deputy chairperson of the supervisory board. For this objective , a syndicate consisting of four banks has committed to provide a term loan, a revolving credit facility and a bridge loan which will be taken out by the issuance of new bonds at the level of Schaeffler Holding at a later stage.

All outstanding bonds of its Schaeffler Holding Finance unit would be redeemed, the company said. Chinese market turmoil and the 20 per cent plunge of Volkswagen’s shares on Monday, following an investigation into possible manipulation of emissions data, were not optimal for Schaeffler’s IPO, he said on a conference call on Monday.