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Permira-backed TeamViewer defies European IPO drought

PE-backed software company TeamViewer has announced plans to go public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by the end of the year. The offering could be one of Germany’s largest listings since 2017, with the expected valuation said to be between €4 billion and €5 billion (between around $4.4 billion and $5.5 billion).

Based in the city of Göppingen, TeamViewer develops a platform for online meetings and remote desktop access that has been installed on over 2 billion devices. Last year, the company reportedly generated sales of €230 million and EBITDA of €121 million.

Permira bought the business in 2014 for a reported €870 million from GFI Software. The PE firm is anticipated to sell between 30% and 40% of its shares, according to the Financial Times, but is said to be retaining its position as a majority stakeholder. Permira was reportedly approached by Hellman & Friedman and Vista Equity Partners in 2017, with each firm offering separate bids of some $2 billion to acquire TeamViewer.

If successful, the listing bucks a trend that has seen a significant drop in European IPOs. According to data from PitchBook, public offerings on the continent are at their lowest levels in nearly a decade. So far this year, 106 European companies have gone public compared with 311 last year. What’s more, very few of the companies that debuted on the markets this year raised large amounts of cash.

Only three businesses from the continent have broken the €1 billion mark in eight months. The largest IPO came courtesy of Italian lender Nexi, which priced its shares at €9 apiece to raise more than €2 billion in April. Europe’s second-biggest listing of the year saw Volkswagen’s truck and bus unit Traton make its stock market debut at €27 per share which brought in €1.55 billion. The final company that raised at least €1 billion is Trainline, the developer of a platform offering train and bus tickets. The KKR-backed business secured £951 million (around $1.2 billion at the time) by floating in London.

Some European businesses have avoided the markets altogether or backed out of scheduled IPOs. In July, Swiss Re pulled plans to list its UK life insurance arm ReAssure, which could have given the business a market cap of up to £3.3 billion. The group cited weak demand and heightened caution as its reasons, suggesting that certain political events may play a role in IPO suspension.

Of course, Brexit gets some of the blame, especially in the UK, but political uncertainty may not be the only reason for the lackluster demand for IPOs. Considering share price performance, European businesses haven’t been the best performers when going public. Traton’s stock has pretty much been on a downward spiral since the company’s June IPO—closing Wednesday at just over €22 per share—while Nexi’s stock fell a reported 6.2% on its first day. And we all know the debacles that were the Aston Martin and Funding Circle listings.

Still, there is hope that if it is executed, TeamViewer’s public debut will fare better than some of its peers, with its profitability and the attractiveness of the software market.

 

Read more – www.pitchbook.com

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IWG may launch US IPO, extending co-working space growth frenzy

International Workplace Group is considering an IPO in New York for its US-based operations, according to Sky News. Such a spinoff could reportedly be worth up to £3 billion (about $3.67 billion), nearly equal to IWG’s £3.64 billion (about $4.45 billion) market cap as of August 26. The company did not immediately respond to PitchBook’s request for comment.

The news came less than two weeks after WeWork released its S-1 document August 14, revealing 1H 2019 losses of over $900 million while holding a footprint comparable to IWG’s. As a result, IWG’s consideration of an IPO is perhaps a direct response to WeWork’s advance, evidenced by IWG’s insistence of only considering underwriters that are not involved with WeWork’s IPO, again per Sky News.

IWG isn’t the only player in this space making moves after WeWork’s S-1 reveal.

On Thursday, New York-based Industrious reeled in $80 million from Brookfield Property Partners and fitness club provider Equinox, among others. CEO Jamie Hodari expects the company to be profitable within a “few months,” according to Reuters. On Wednesday, New York-based Knotel announced it had pulled in $400 million at an over $1 billion valuation in a round led by Wafra.

Lesser-known competitors, such as The Yard, Convene, BHIVE Workspace, Alley, and The Wing, also stand to possibly beef up their game as WeWork’s IPO plays out.

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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Uber hemorrhages $5.2B in 2Q amid volatile day for ridehailing

Optimistic investors spent Thursday driving up the price of shares in Uber (NYSE: UBER) in anticipation of the company’s 2Q earnings. Once the results arrived, though, it was a very different story.

Uber reported an eye-watering 2Q loss of $5.2 billion on Thursday, part of an earnings report that came almost three months to the day after the ridehailing company went public in a long-awaited IPO that raised $8.1 billion. The report sent the company’s stock sliding in after-hours trading, giving up most of its gains from earlier in the day. Uber closed Thursday at $42.97, up more than 8%, but it dipped to below $38 in early after-hours trading before quickly bouncing back to above $40.

That $5.2 billion loss included $3.9 billion in one-time compensation expenses related to the company’s IPO, so the damage isn’t as severe as it might initially appear. But that leaves about $1.3 billion in other losses, compared to $878 million in total losses for 2Q 2018.

Uber also reported revenue of nearly $3.2 billion, a YoY uptick of 14%. That’s reportedly the slowest quarterly growth figure the company has ever publicly disclosed, which is both a testament to how explosive its previous growth has been and a potential warning sign to investors of Uber’s ability (or lack thereof) to maintain that steady expansion.

Uber unveiled its 2Q earnings one day after Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) did the same. The numbers were a bit more promising for the slightly smaller ridehailing company, with revenue of $867.3 million (up 72% YoY) and a net loss of $644.2 million, compared to $178.9 million during 2Q 2018. Notably, Lyft changed its previous estimates of how much money it will lose for the whole of 2019, revising its projection from nearly $1.18 billion down to $875 million.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com