German lighting firm Hess cuts IPO price range

FRANKFURT Oct 17 (Reuters) - German lighting designer Hess cut the price range for its planned flotation and extended the subscription period as the market for initial public offerings (IPO) struggles to take off again.

The company said on Wednesday it had lowered the price range to between 15.50 euros ($20.19) and 18.50 euros from an initial range of 20-23 euros.

Family-owned Hess has previously said it plans to focus on the global market for light-emitting diodes (LED), which is forecast to grow to 57 billion euros by 2020 from 5 billion euros in 2011, according to a McKinsey study cited by the firm.

It initially aimed for its shares to start trading on Friday but has now extended the subscription period to Oct. 23.

It still plans to offer up to 2.3 million shares plus a 345,000 share over-allotment from the holdings of Hess Grundstuecksverwaltungs GmbH & Co KG And now sees gross proceeds between 35.7 million and 42.6 million euros.

The move comes as Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica hopes to raise around 1.5 billion euros by selling part of its O2-branded German subsidiary on the stock market.

($1 = 0.7679 euros) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan)