Telit Communications has completed its IPO on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.
The company raised $44 million at a company value (after the money) of $115 million. Its shares were listed for trading this morning under the symbol TCM.L at an opening price of 1.4 pounds sterling.
Telit Communications CEO Oozi Cats said, "We are delighted that the flotation of the Company has been completed successfully and it is pleasing to see such high levels of institutional demand for the shares. We now look forward to using the funds raised from the flotation to increase our sales and marketing to take Telit to its next stage of growth."
Telit Communications was 95% owned by Polar Investments (TASE:PLR). As a result of the IPO, Polar Investments' stake has fallen to 51%, and it will record a pre-tax capital gain of some NIS 75 million.
The flotation was managed by Seymour Pierce.
Telit specializes in the design and sale of mobile telecommunications hardware. It operates in worldwide markets, mainly from Trieste and Tel Aviv.
The business has two operating divisions. The first of these is the design, development, manufacture and sale of cellular wireless terminals for application in the machine-to-machine (m2m) communication market. The second is a branded cellular terminal enhanced value-added reseller business, which customizes and distributes cellular handsets manufactured by third parties. These handsets are sold using the Telit brand name.
The Telit group carries out its activities through Dai Telecom (Israel), which directly and indirectly owns Dai Telecom SpA of Italy, which it acquired in 2002. The group's annual revenue for 2004 was $97 million, compared with $32 million in 2003, and $31.1 million in 2002. Operating loss for 2004 was $2.3 million, compared with $13.9 million in 2003. The group had an operating profit of $850,000 in 2002. Shareholders equity is currently $13.2 million, and cash reserves stand at $750,000.
Telit plans to build on its already established cellular phones markets in Italy, Israel, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Slovenia and Portugal as well as targeting new markets to achieve growth.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 4, 2005