SoftwareONE began trading for the first time on the SIX on Friday. At an opening price of 18 Swiss francs per registered share, the market capitalization was 2.85 billion francs, according to a press release.
The basic offer consisted of 38,549,464 existing registered shares, held by KKR, Peruni Holding, employees and other shareholders. In addition, KKR and Peruni Holding have granted the Joint Global Coordinators an over-allotment option of up to 5,782,419 existing shares.
SoftwareONE is one of the largest re-sellers of Microsoft products. It also sells software from SAP, IBM, Oracle and other companies, allowing it to help its customers select and buy the right software and manage the software licenses. In addition, SoftwareONE is expanding its services portfolio, including new solutions like cloud technology.
SoftwareONE was founded by Daniel von Stockar and Patrick Winter in 2000. It is headquartered in Stans in the canton of Nidwalden and today employs around 5,300 people. SoftwareONE has local sales capacities in 90 countries and around 65,000 business customers worldwide. In 2018, the company recorded a gross profit of 724 million francs on a pro forma basis.
The aim of the IPO is to enhance the company’s global profile. The founding shareholders retain the largest stake in SoftwareONE with 30.9%.
“On our exciting journey, SoftwareONE has constantly advanced and renewed itself and pushed ahead with innovations, while our strong corporate culture has provided a solid foundation,” said von Stockar, chairman of SoftwareONE. “The listing of our shares at SIX is a natural next step in our development, which opens up new opportunities for our company.”
