October 19, 2006
Buzz Buildup For Neuf Cegetel IPO
Yesterday Les Echos reported the IPO slated for next week of Neuf Cegetel, the French alternative telco and broadband operator, is meeting demand.
Telcos and ISPs traditionally do well on Europe's public markets. Its rival, Iliad, had a stellar IPO back in 2004 that woke us all up after three years of post-bubble gloom and doom. We hear that the early investors in Iliad returned about 75 times money on that exit.
Neuf Cegetel is a good-sized float: if our math is right, a mid-bookbuilding price means the company would raise about €800M, circa €200M of which will actually flow to its coffers as new money. The rest buys out old investors. It would suggest a valuation of €4B.
We don't know much about how customers feel about Neuf Cegetel but we think it is pretty innovative compared to rivals.
It has shown that IPTV is not just about delivering the same stuff we get over the cable or terrestrial networks on a broadband pipe. For example, it launched a VOD service (provided by French startup Glowria) in a simple format.
Through a subsidiary it offers free phone calls in a Skype-like service called Wengo, and its "Hitview" audience monitoring service shows promise too.
Hitview enables IPTV subscribers to "see" not only what channels everyone else is watching, but also which shows are more the most popular. It says it's real time but we notice a 12 hour delay in the data online this morning. Realtime or not, it is difficult to this kind of thing with ease on cable and over-the-air broadcasting networks.
Neuf Does Things With IPTV That Satellite and Cable TV Operators Just Can't
Read - Wengo Expects Breakeven (a:c euro)
Read - Vodafone affiliate Neuf Cegetel IPO two-times oversubscribed - report (afx news)
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March 21, 2006
Loss-making Sandvine completes buoyant IPO
Shares in Sandvine, whose products regulate and control traffic on broadband networks, climbed today on its first day of trading on London's lightly regulated AIM stock exchange. The IPO price of 75 pence gave the firm a valuation of €124M. The share price was up by 25 pence to 100 pence at the time this report was posted.
The equipment vendor, which hails from the same hometown as Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (Waterloo in Canada) raised £20M (€29M) in a placing alongside its IPO. Plus it found new owners for some £5M worth of old shareholders stock.
According to a report on TechFinance Canada, Sandvine was loss-making and had sales of CDN $15.8 million, up from CDN $3.2 million in 2004. Its losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization amounted to CDN $3.0 million, down from CDN $6.2 million in 2004.
Sandvine raised $38M from its venture backers, which included Celtic House Venture Partners, a fund that has taken several Canadian telecoms equipment public via the AIM.
Celtic's founder is Terry Matthews, an entrepreneur-turned VC who is well-known in London, which might help to explain why the share offering was so successful. Matthews was born in Wales but made his fortune in Canada after founding several telecoms equipment companies there. He has streets named after him in Canada's capital city and is known as Sir Terry in the UK.
Alongside Celtic, the firm attracted other backers, including VenGrowth Funds, Newbury Ventures, Waterloo Tech Group of Funds, Business Development Bank of Canada Venture Capital.
