Reiten & Co's Webstep aims for NOK 643m valuation in IPO

Nicole Tovstiga
10 October 2017

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Norwegian IT consultancy firm Webstep, owned by Reiten & Co, has priced its shares at NOK 24.5 apiece on completion of its listing on Oslo BУИrs.

The subscription price corresponds to a market value of approximately NOK 643m. The first day of trading is expected to be on 11 October, with the offering consisting of 36% of the company's shares.

On 26 September, Reiten announced that the indicative price range for the company's shares was set at NOK 23.75-27.75, corresponding to an equity value of NOK 505-590m. Reiten intends to sell 6,455,176 shares in the offering, thus retaining an ownership of 20%, and other shareholders will sell 2,924,694 shares, or 16%.

If the overallotment option is exercised in full, the Nordic private equity firm's ownership interest would be reduced to 14% from 20%.

A total of 16,528,408 shares (including overallotted shares) were put forward in the offering. Following completion of the listing, Webstep will have approximately 830 shareholders.

Arctic Securities, SpareBank 1 Markets and SpareBank 1 SR-Bank acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners.

Previous funding
Reiten acquired the company in April 2011 through a structured auction process arranged by Saga Corporate Finance, buying a 62.5% stake. Management and employees retained ownership of the remaining 37.5% stake.

Equity for the transaction was provided by the Reiten & Co Capital Partners VII fund, which raised €256m at final close in October 2007.

Company
Headquartered in Lilleakerveien, Oslo, the company is an IT consultancy firm focusing on medium-sized and large businesses in a broad range of industries. The company was founded in 2000 and employs 393 people across offices in Bergen, Oslo, Stavanger, Trondheim, Kristiansand, Stockholm and Malmö.

The company posted a profit before tax of NOK 54m for 2016. It had a turnover of NOK 563m, up from NOK 549m in 2015.

People
Reiten – Narve Reiten (founding partner).
Webstep – Kjetil Eriksen (CEO); Anders Løken (CFO).