Hydrogen firm ThyssenKrupp Nucera has priced its initial public offering at 20 euros ($21.72) per share, implying a market capitalisation of around 2.5 billion euros, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company and its shareholders, Germany's ThyssenKrupp and Italy's De Nora, expect to raise up to 605 million euros through the IPO, making it one of Europe's largest so far this year.

The stock is due to start trading on Friday on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

"We are proud that in terms of placement volume ThyssenKrupp Nucera is the largest global hydrogen IPO of all times," Nucera's chief executive, Werner Ponikwar, said in the statement.

The final pricing of 20 euros per share comes in the middle of the indicative price range of 19-21.5 euros, though well below earlier expectations of a price that would have implied a market cap in excess of 3 billion euros.

About a third of the shares on sale were previously allocated to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and BNP Paribas' Energy Transition Fund ahead of launch.

Nucera's IPO is part of a wave of European companies aiming to go public before investors shut up shop for the summer, including Hidroelectrica in Romania and CAB Payments in Britain.

Bankers hope the transactions will herald a stronger recovery in new listings in the coming months, but how companies perform once they start trading will be closely watched.

The IPO will be the first in Germany since February, when shares in web hosting company IONOS debuted in Frankfurt, as stock market volatility and an uncertain economic outlook have put other company listings on the back burner.

($1 = 0.9208 euros)

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Leslie Adler)