SoftwareONE wants an IPO before the end of the year.
It claims an IPO is a natural step for the company, and will increase its visibility and global profile. The IPO will consist of secondary shares from founding shareholders, KKR, Comparex investor Peruni and management, with founding shareholders expected to maintain the largest stake.
Private equity firm KKR, which acquired a 25 percent stake in SoftwareONE in 2015, will retain a “significant” stake in the firm following the IPO.
Rumours are that the IPO is primarily driven by KKR wanting to cash in on its four-year investment. Reuters claims that SoftwareONE will be valued at “several billion” Swiss francs.
Founding shareholders Daniel von Stockar, René Gilli and Beat Curti own around 38 percent of SoftwareONE shares. KKR now holds 21 percent, Peruni 15 percent, and management and employees holding a 10 per cent stake. Some 16 percent of its shares are held by other shareholders.
SoftwareONE CEO Dieter Schlosser said he’s confident that it can achieve double-digit gross profit growth following its IPO and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 35 per cent over “the mid-term”.
He said: “As cloud adoption and digital transformation have progressed, we have evolved to become a leading integrated software and cloud solutions provider, empowering thousands of companies to transform. I am very confident that we can continue to capitalise on the business opportunities our attractive and growing markets provide.”
