Alfa Financial, which provides software for the asset finance industry, plans to list on the London Stock Exchange next month. A source familiar with the matter said the company, which counts Bank of America and Mercedes-Benz as customers, was aiming for a valuation of over 800 million pounds ($1 billion) after the initial public offering (IPO).
Based on proceeds of over $250 million if a minimum 25 percent stake is floated, that would be the biggest technology IPO in London since the late 2015 listing of software reseller Softcat, according to Thomson Reuters data. London-based Alfa, which made adjusted earnings before interest and tax of 32.8 million pounds in 2016, said in a statement it hoped the listing would help it win market share by attracting new customers looking to replace legacy or in-house systems that have failed to keep up with evolving regulations.
Uncertainty around Britain's future outside of the EU single market has dampened investor confidence: funds raised by British firms holding IPOs fell 28 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. In October, Misys scrapped what would have been one of the biggest technology IPOs London has ever seen, blaming market volatility and adding to a series of cancellations. Alfa, however, said Brexit had not affected its listing plans as the underlying asset finance market continued to grow strongly.
"The asset finance market is an incredibly robust mart and has shown growth through all sorts of political and economic turbulence. So whatever is going on ... we're very confident in our constituent market," CEO Andrew Denton told Reuters in a phone interview. The asset finance market globally was estimated to be worth about $5.4 trillion by 2015, with $2.6 trillion of this relating to new business volumes, according to PwC.
Alfa said it expected to float at least 25 percent of its shares, including the sale of shares by investor CHP Software and Consulting Ltd, which is 89.7 percent owned by Executive Chairman Andrew Page and 10.3 percent by Denton. Alfa's business is split between the United States and Europe and it said funds from its highly cash-generative business would cover potential growth plans, which include growing its newly launched cloud-based service and rolling out upgrades for its existing platform.
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