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October 12, 2007
VC-backed Swiss GPS Startup To IPO
VC-backed u-blox Holding AG said it is planning an IPO on the SWX. The banks have been mandated but the financial details are not available yet, except that it will be a mix of new and old shares sold.
This is an interesting one because it is one of the few Swiss university spinoff companies in the IT/telecoms sector here that has made it to a size big enough to float without getting acquired beforehand.
u-blox was founded ten years ago by team that came out of the ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. It has kept a low-profile in the business press, but has released a steady stream of GPS receiver products over the years. It has about 5M units in the field.
It supplies products for both the US GPS network and for the future, repeatedly delayed, European one called Galileo.
Its backers include 3i and iGlobe Partners, Zug-based Partners Group, which is a fund of fund manager that does occasional direct investments, as well as two Swiss banks.
The company generated SFr 54.4M last year with a net profit of SFr 7.4 million. Sales are up for the first six months of this year by 69% compared to the same period last year.
u-blox has appointed Credit Suisse as Sole Global Coordinator and Bookrunner, Zürcher Kantonalbank as Co-Manager and Helvea SA as Selling Agent for the upcoming IPO.
Read Give Me My Location Now, Right Now
View u-blox
Posted on October 12, 2007 03:45 PM | Posted to News And Updates | Permalink
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