Non-public equity-backed Visma picks London for blockbuster tech IPO

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Non-public equity-backed software program group Visma has chosen London over Amsterdam for the deliberate preliminary public providing of the €19bn software program firm subsequent yr, scoring a uncommon win for the UK’s beleaguered inventory market.

British buyout agency Hg has owned Visma, which offers small to medium-sized companies with accounting and payroll software program, since 2006 when it took the corporate personal at a valuation of about £380mn.

Since then the UK-based personal fairness agency has repeatedly reinvested in Visma by its newer funds and cashed out a few of its holdings by gross sales to exterior backers.

Hg presently owns about 70 per cent of Visma with its co-investors, with the rest owned by minority shareholders together with Singapore’s GIC and US personal fairness group TPG.

Visma beforehand thought-about pursuing an IPO in 2023 however as a substitute opted for a personal share sale to traders together with Jane Road and Altaroc in a transaction that valued the corporate at €19bn.

Nevertheless the enterprise, which has grown by 350 bolt-on acquisitions and final yr reported €185mn in pre-tax earnings off €2.8bn in revenues, is now probably too large to maintain totally personal, folks conversant in the discussions mentioned. Hg plans to retain a stake in Visma long-term, they added.

The choice to proceed with an inventory in London early subsequent yr is provisional and contingent on the implementation of promised reforms by the federal government and the inventory trade wanted to outweigh problems brought on by Brexit, the folks mentioned.

London’s inventory trade has been squeezed by a scarcity of latest listings and regular circulation of exits from giant corporations shifting their main listings to New York or accepting takeover affords.

Final yr 88 corporations delisted or transferred their main itemizing from London’s foremost market, with solely 18 taking their place. Thus far this yr there have been simply three IPOs on the nation’s foremost market with a mixed market capitalisation at itemizing of lower than £100mn, in accordance with information from the London Inventory Change.

London gained out for the Visma IPO due to its deep capital markets and the presence of extra traders who focus solely on UK shares than these shopping for solely Dutch equities, the folks conversant in the deliberations mentioned.

However they added that the implementation of deliberate reforms was important, comparable to permitting corporations with a euro share worth to be included in FTSE indices.

Banks might be invited to pitch for the itemizing this week, the folks mentioned.

Visma and Hg declined to remark.