The €19bn Norwegian software company Visma has picked London over Amsterdam for its planned flotation next year, giving a much-needed boost to the London stock market.
The company, which makes accounting, payroll and HR software products for 2.1 million customers across Northern Europe and Latin America, has yet to make a final decision but London is the frontrunner, it is understood.
Visma is thought to have picked London for its initial public offering (IPO) because of its deep capital markets and the presence of more investors who focus solely on buying UK stocks compared with those who purchase only Dutch equities, in news first reported by the Financial Times.
It would be a rare win for London’s stock exchange, which has been hit by an exodus of big names such as the drugmaker Indivior, which recently opted for a sole listing on the US Nasdaq, and the Anglo-German travel group Tui, which last year switched to a sole listing in Frankfurt. In 2024, the London market lost 88 companies that delisted or transferred their primary listing elsewhere, the most since the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to analysis by EY.
The decision is contingent on implementation of reforms by the UK government and the London Stock Exchange, to offset complications caused by Brexit.
Visma, headquartered in Oslo, is 70%-owned by the London-based private equity firm Hg Capital. Hg, the UK’s second-biggest private equity firm behind the Jersey-based CVC Capital Partners, decided two decades ago to focus on software investments.
HG helped to take Visma private from the Oslo stock exchange in 2006 at a valuation of nearly £330m, when it stepped in as a white knight investor after Visma received a hostile bid from the UK software group Sage.
Since then, Visma has grown every quarter, and expanded through 350 bolt-on acquisitions. It has 16,400 employees and reported revenues of €2.8bn last year, with nearly 12% organic growth. It made underlying profits of €893m.
Other investors include Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Singaporean private equity firm Intermediate Capital Group, Canada’s CPP Investments and the Texas-based private equity group TPG. Visma’s management team, led by the chief executive, Merete Hverven, and group employees together own 6.4%. She joined the company in 2011 and took the helm in March 2020.
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Visma, the largest privately owned software company in Europe, previously considered listing in 2023 but amid market volatility decided to raise funds from private investors instead.
Visma and Hg declined to comment.