Conditional digital television access equipment maker NDS Group Ltd., which was delisted when it was bought in 2009, may again become a public company in 2012. In an interview with "Reuters", NDS chairman and CEO Dr. Abe Peled did not rule out the possibility.
NDS was delisted after its parent company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NYSE: NWS; ASX: NCP), together with European private equity fund Permira Advisors LLC acquired full control of the company for $3.6 billion, and delisted it after a decade on Nasdaq.
Peled said that the company was considering going public again, but on the London Stock Exchange, not Nasdaq. He added that, in view of NDS's expanding presence in China, the company might dual-list there as well. The goal is to go public at a higher company value than the value at which the company was taken private.
Peled added that NDS's profit would be 18% higher in 2010 than in 2009.
NDS is headquartered in London, and also has activity in Jerusalem, where it is led by COO Rafi Kasten and has several hundred employees.
It is not all that unusual for private equity funds to take companies private and later relist them. The obvious goal is to go public at a higher company value than at the purchase price.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 28, 2010
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