Last week Russian offshore software developer Luxoft began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its stock was initially offered at $17 per share, but at the end of the IPO day the share price increased to $20.38, showing 20% growth and valuing Luxoft at some $555 million.
In total, during the IPO Luxoft has raised $69.6 million – $10 million less than the amount mentioned in the registration statement the company filed at the end of May.
However, the initial amount can still be reached if the underwriters – UBS, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, VTB Capital, and Cowen and Company – exercise their greenshoe options within 30 days of the IPO.
At the IPO, Luxoft offered buyers 4.92 million Class A shares, which represents 12.6% of the capital stock. Half of the shares were sold by Luxoft itself, and the other half by its major stockholder, IBS Group Holding Ltd. Greenshoe options total 613,810 shares.
Founded in 2000, Luxoft is part of the IBS Group, where it accounts for 87% of the group’s valuation, according to an analysis conducted last year by Uralsib Capital. The company currently employs more than 5,900 people in development offices in Russia, Ukraine, the UK, Vietnam, Romania, Germany and Poland, as well as in marketing offices in the US and on Cyprus.
In the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2013, the company posted $314.6 million in revenue, showing 16% year-to-year growth.
Luxoft recently expanded its US presence by acquiring the open-source solutions of Freedom OSS for an undisclosed sum.
Over the last few years several Russian tech companies have sought introduction on Western stock exchanges, where the volume of available funding is far more significant than on the still little developed local capital markets. Among these companies are Mail.Ru Group and Yandex, two leading players on the Russian Internet scene, EPAM Systems, a CEE-oriented offshore software developer and one of Luxoft’s rivals, Megafon, a major mobile operator, and payment operator Qiwi, which went public on the NASDAQ in May.
