Kainos Software, a spinout of Queen’s University Belfast, is targeting £161.3m ($248.7m) in an IPO due to be held on the London Stock Exchange at the end of the week.
Starting life in 1986, the IT firm will place 37,691,763 shares at 139p per share, and is expecting to raise £52.4m in proceeds for selling shareholders.
One of Northern Ireland’s largest IT firms, Kainos recorded £61m in revenue last year with a pre-tax profit of £11.8m. It has customers in healthcare, government, and financial sectors, including Travelex, Netflix, and the National Health Service. The firm currently employs 700 people, and has announced plans to create another 400 jobs around the Belfast area.
Stating that the decision to list in London is largely driven by the substantial customer base the UK offers, Brendan Mooney, CEO of Kainos, added: “We’re in three absolutely fantastic growth markets and they have been great for us over the last four years and we see things accelerating in these sectors going forward. The opportunities we have in our existing markets is phenomenal.”
