Werner goes public

By VARIETY STAFF

Animated film star Werner is looking for support from German investors at the Berlin stock market. Kiel-based Achterbahn, which holds the rights to the Werner comic book character, went public Tuesday.

The initial public offering was DM75 ($42), which was the upper price range offered during the bookbuilding phase. At the close of trading on the first day, the shares had fallen to DM66 ($37).

Achterbahn expects to raise DM21 million ($11.9 million) from the floatation. Most of the capital will be used to finance the production of the next "Werner" film. The previous two "Werner" animated pics, which were produced by Constantin and Senator, sold north of 5 million tickets each in German-speaking territories.