French night vision firm Exosens aims to raise 180 mln euros in IPO
Adds background in paragraph 3; details from paragraph 8 onwards
By Mathieu Rosemain and Augustin Turpin
May 23 (Reuters) -French optical component maker Exosens is aiming to raise about 180 million euros ($195 million) through an IPO on Euronext Paris, paving the way for a partial exit for private equity firm Groupe HLD amid a return of stock listings in Europe.
The company, which provides night vision tools and photo sensor technology for defense, medical and nuclear scientific applications, is deemed strategic by the French government, which blocked its sale to a U.S. conglomerate four years ago.
It is benefiting from a boom in global military spending, with its night amplification optical tools representing two thirds of its sales. The money raised through the stock listing will be used to cut debt and make acquisitions, it said.
Exosens, formerly known as Photonis, said in a statement on Thursday that France's financial markets regulator approved its registration document, the first step for a listing process that takes weeks.
The group has still to set the price per share, which would determine the market valuation it is seeking.
HLD, owned by a group of 30 wealthy families, bought Exosens from French buyout group Ardian in 2021. It intends to sell a portion of its shares through the IPO while maintaining a controlling interest, according to the statement.
French state-owned investment bank Bpifrance intends to buy some of Exosens' new shares, Exosens said, with the aim to own 4.5% of the group after the stock listing.
Exosens employs 1,600 people and generated about 319 million euros in sales in 2023, up from 166 million in 2021, it said. It said its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin was about 29% last year.
It is targeting underlying sales growth at the top of the 15%-20% range in 2024, and adjusted EBITDA of at least 115 million euros.
A string of stock listings this year has infused new life into Europe's anaemic market for IPOs.
There's been two notable company listings in Paris so far this year: the direct listing of Pluxee PLX.PA, the spun-off voucher unit of French caterer Sodexo EXHO.PA, and the IPO of French software group Planisware PLNW.PA.
($1 = 0.9238 euros)
Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Augustin Turpin, Editing by Dominique Vidalon, Tomasz Janowski and Muralikumar Anantharaman
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
