Exclusive Networks 'could be valued at €2.1bn' in planned IPO

Trading is expected to start on Euronext Paris later this month

Exclusive Networks has issued an indicative offering price range of between €20 and €24 per share and is seeking to raise more than €400m in its initial public offering on Euronext Paris.

The French cybersecurity distributor announced earlier this month that it is to list on the Euronext Paris Exchange, with the pricing of the offering expected to take place on 22 September and conditional trading of the shares on the regulated market expected to start on 23 September.

It will include the issuance of new shares by the company for gross proceeds of approximately €260m and the sale of existing shares worth approximately €156 million based on the high end of the indicative price range, valuing the company at as much as €2.1 billion according to Bloomberg.

There is also an over-allotment option for the sale of shares by Everest UK HoldCo Limited and HTIVB, resulting in gross proceeds of between €55m and €62m.

"We believe our proposed IPO on Euronext will help us to accelerate our proven growth strategy which is centred around four key tenets: driving growth with existing vendors; attracting new vendors and customers; expanding our services offering; and acquiring companies that fit our culture and DNA, and complement our geographical presence or capabilities," Jesper Trolle, CEO of Exclusive Networks, said.

"The cyber ecosystem is getting more and more complex, the channel selling cyber products is fragmented, and technology is evolving very quickly to combat the growing sophistication in threats and cyber-attacks. This creates demand for a cyber specialist like Exclusive Networks in the long-term, and we look forward to bringing even greater value to our vendors and partners in the future."

Exclusive Networks claims it achieved revenues of €2.9bn in 2020, up from €2bn in 2018, and reached an adjusted EBITA of €108m compared to €84m in 2018.

The IPO puts Exclusive Networks among just a handful of IT distributors operating in the market today including Midwich, Exertis, Arrow Electronics, Synnex, Esprinet and ALSO, that are publicly listed.