Advertisement
UK markets close in 4 hours 41 minutes
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.37
    +20.39 (+0.26%)
     
  • FTSE 250

    19,862.88
    +52.22 (+0.26%)
     
  • AIM

    743.40
    +1.29 (+0.17%)
     
  • GBP/EUR

    1.1695
    +0.0026 (+0.23%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2619
    -0.0019 (-0.15%)
     
  • Bitcoin GBP

    55,924.01
    +266.62 (+0.48%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,248.49
    +44.91 (+0.86%)
     
  • DOW

    39,760.08
    +477.75 (+1.22%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    82.48
    +1.13 (+1.39%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,229.40
    +16.70 (+0.75%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • HANG SENG

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • DAX

    18,481.26
    +4.17 (+0.02%)
     
  • CAC 40

    8,225.00
    +20.19 (+0.25%)
     

Russia's cybersecurity firm Softline to launch $1.5bn London IPO

Russia's cybersecurity firm Softline to launch $1.5bn London IPO
The LSE has seen a host of tech IPOs recently. Photo: Getty (SOPA Images via Getty Images)

Russian IT services provider Softline said on Wednesday it has set its final offer price at $7.50 (£5.45) per global depositary receipt (GDR) for its London initial public offering (IPO).

This is at the lower end of its target range and gave the firm a valuation of around $1.5bn when it began conditional dealings on the main market of the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning under the ticker ‘SFTL’.

The listing of the GDR represents ordinary shares of the company.

Softline had raised $400m in the offer of 53 million GDRs representing newly issued ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing due on the Moscow Exchange.

ADVERTISEMENT

Up to 8 million GDRs were being made available by certain existing shareholders as an over-allotment option.

Softline began as a local software reseller with 10 employees and has grown into a “global emerging markets’ IT leader”, it said, with some 6,000 employees working in over 50 countries.

Read more: IPO Watch: WeTransfer sales hit €65m ahead of potential listing

Russian businessman and founder Igor Borovikov, said that “with the IPO now complete, we are remarkably well equipped to further reinforce our market position while continuing our trajectory of fast and profitable growth.”

“We’d like to welcome our new investors and thank them for their trust and confidence in us. We understand that becoming a publicly listed company brings along a great deal of responsibility," he said.

"We are all fully committed to maximising value for the benefit of all of our stakeholders in the years to come.”

The cybersecurity firm had a turnover of $1.8bn in the year to March 2021, up from $1.3bn the year before.

Credit Suisse (CS), JP Morgan (JPM) and VTB Capital acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, alongside Citigroup (C), Alfa Capital Markets, Gazprombank and Sber CIB which were also joint bookrunners.

The listing on the London market follows a host of other tech IPOs and comes at a time when businesses are struggling to keep up-to-date on cybersecurity.

Read more: European markets tread water as traders await UK budget

According to Atlas VPN, in the 12 months to April 2021, 83% of UK businesses had experienced phishing attacks. Compared to 2017, phishing attempts directed at UK businesses rose by 11%.

Out of all surveyed organisations, around half had established at least one cybersecurity measure in the 12 months, which meant the other half had not taken any action to evaluate their cybersecurity.

Watch: How do influencers make money from TikTok?