Picsel Technologies, a Scottish provider of software to leading mobile phone makers, plans to float early next year to help expand its business beyond Asia, the company's head said on May 23. "If our commercial success is borne out with our new products, we're probably looking for an IPO in Q1 next year," Chief Executive Imran Khand told Reuters in an interview.
Morgan Stanley and Daiwa Securities have been appointed as lead managers for the initial public offering (IPO), Khand said, with a debut planned on the London Stock Exchange followed by a listing on Tokyo's Mothers market.
Khand did not specify the amount to be raised but said IPOs in the sector typically involved 20 to 25 percent of a company's shares. Picsel, which earns 90 percent of its revenues in Japan and South Korea, also expects to reach "five to six big deals" with major carriers in Australia, Canada and the United States this year, Khand said.
"We would like to be more expansive so that we have a much wider reach," he said.
"These big markets in Russia, the Middle East, South America, Africa - we want to be there," he said, although the Glasgow-based company hopes to focus its operations in Asia.
Founded in 1998, the company made a pretax profit of $11.8 million in the year ended 2006 on sales of $45.7 million. Softbank Europe and Capital International Private Equity are among Picsel's major private equity investors.
Mobile phones use Picsel software to display pictures and video. It is loaded on 200 million handsets worldwide, including those made by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, NEC, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc.