CyrusOne, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell that owns and operates its parent company's data center business, has commenced the initial public offering of 16,500,000 shares of its common stock.

Cincinnati Bell first announced plans to sell US$500m in stock of it’s the colocation services business in October 2012.

It first purchased CyrusOne in 2010 for US$525m.

Proceeds of the sale, Cincinnati Bell said back in October, would be used to repay CyrusOne’s outstanding debt to Cincinnati Bell.

All of the shares of common stock are being offered by CyrusOne.

The estimated price range for the initial public offering is $16.00 to $18.00 per share. The underwriters will be granted an option to purchase up to 2,475,000 additional shares of common stock from CyrusOne at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

CyrusOne has applied to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "CONE."

Upon completion of this offering, Cincinnati Bell expects to effectively own approximately 71.6% of CyrusOne through its interests in the outstanding shares of common stock of CyrusOne and its interests in the common units of limited partnership interest of CyrusOne's operating partnership, CyrusOne LP, which are exchangable into shares of common stock of CyrusOne.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint-bookrunners for the offering.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus.