u-blox AG (Switzerland) - Oct 2007

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01 October 2007

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Partners Group and 3i have floated u-blox Holding AG on the main segment of the SWX Swiss Exchange. Credit Suisse acted as global coordinator and sole bookrunner with Zürcher Kantonalbank as the co-lead manager and Helvea SA as the selling agent. A total of 3,056,677 shares (1,250,000 newly issued shares, 1,407,981 existing shares and a green-shoe allocation of 398,696 shares) were placed at an issue price of CHF 51. The IPO was almost seven times oversubscribed. Hans-Ulrich Müller led the exit for Partners Group with Hansjoerg Sage representing 3i. u-blox intends to use the net proceeds from the newly issued shares for the implementation of its growth strategy and the further expansion of its market position. Based on the issue price, the offering size was CHF 155.9m and the market capitalisation now amounts to approximately CHF 318.4m based on a total of 6,243,370 registered shares. Partners Group originally held 40% of the company, and sold 30% of that interest during the IPO (selling 850,000 of its two million shares). The lock-up period for the major pre-IPO shareholders is 180 days with members of the executive committee and of the board of directors being committed to a lock-up period of 365 days. The free float now amounts to 49%. u-blox was founded in 1997 by a former research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), and currently has 71 employees, with plans to grow to 97 employees in 2007 The company develops positioning technology, products, and services based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), including GPS and GALILEO, for the automotive and mobile terminal communications markets as well as for high precision infrastructure applications. In 2006, u-blox generated sales of CHF 54.4m and a net profit of CHF 7.4m. For the six months ended June 30, 2007 the company recorded sales of CHF 39.4m, representing a growth rate of 69% compared to the same period in the previous year.

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Company - Credit Suisse, (Broker)Company - Züricher Kantonalbank, (Broker)Vendor - KPMG's Private Equity Group, (Accounting)Vendor - Wenger Vieli Rechtsanwälte , (Legal)