OSLO: LINK Mobility Group Holding announced its intention to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in the Company and to apply for a listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

LINK is one of Europe’s leading providers of mobile messaging and Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solutions, based on volume of messages, for customer engagement serving enterprise, SME and government customers.

The IPO is expected to comprise an offering of new shares in the Group to raise gross proceeds of approximately NOK 2.5 billion. In addition, the IPO is expected to include a sale of shares by existing shareholders in the Company.

LINK offers a wide range of innovative and scalable mobile solutions, creating valuable digital convergence between businesses and customers, platforms and users. As of 30 June 2020, the Group had more than 33,000 customer accounts across Europe and in 2019, LINK exchanged 9.5 billion messages.

LINK was founded in 2001 and its original focus was SMS Application to Person (A2P) messaging services. Over time, the Group has grown and evolved its business model into an omni-channel messaging and mobile technology platform leveraging CPaaS functionality to deliver efficient, automated solutions spanning across functions that are mission critical in customer’s operations.

LINK has experienced substantial revenue growth in the period from 2017 to 2019. The growth has been driven by a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. The Group reported revenue of NOK 2,933 million in FY 2019 and NOK 1,718 million in H1 2020 with Adjusted EBITDA of NOK 308 million in FY 2019 and NOK 183 million in H1 2020.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) will support LINK’s strategy and growth plans, including acquisitions, investments in go-to-market initiatives and continued expansion of the CPaaS platform. Furthermore, the IPO will allow the Company, as a listed business, to increase its profile and build a new long-term shareholder base.

The largest owners in the Group, including Victory Partners VIII Limited and Karbon Invest AS, will continue to remain shareholders after the IPO. The Company´s vision is to enable meaningful, personalized, reliable and valuable conversations between customers and companies.

Guillaume Van Gaver, Group CEO, commented: “Becoming a stock exchange listed company marks a significant milestone on the way to our ambitious goal of becoming a global leader in the CPaaS industry. In an increasingly digitilized world, we believe we are well positioned to meet the demand for efficient and trustworthy solutions where governments can communicate with citizens, and brands can build valuable and personalized connections and conversations with their customers on mobile. Our entire organization is committed to working hard to continue to meet our customers needs across the globe and deliver deeper and more innovative mobile messaging solutions.”

Jens Rugseth, Co-founder and Chairman of Link Mobility, commented: “Having been part of LINK Mobility’s journey since the very beginning, I’m proud of the position we’ve achieved over the recent years, as one of Europe´s leading providers of mobile messaging and CPaaS solutions. An Oslo Stock Exchange listing will build upon this strong foundation to support continued growth and expansion, and I’m very excited to see how the company continues to innovate and create valuable solutions that help our customers achieve better relationships with their end-users. Mobile messaging has become an indispensable part of modern communication, and we are one of the companies that have the scalable solutions ready to provide seamless messaging services across platforms, geographies and industries.”

Since the start of the outbreak of the pandemic, LINK has experienced an increase in customer demand for digitalisation products and services, as businesses and governmental entities have been forced to rely on IT infrastructures and systems and have turned to remote working and cloud-based solutions to run their operations. Leveraging LINK’s significant experience and digital solutions portfolio as well as its existing workforce, LINK assisted new and existing customers in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including in connection with digital transformation projects, digital workplace solutions, cloud-based solutions and business continuity solutions.

“Digitalisation is not a new trend, but there is little doubt that the response to the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide has highlighted and accelerated it. The need for secure digital communication is high on the agenda, and we are proud to have been chosen as a partner for a number of public authorities in this period,” says Torbjørn G. Krøvel, CTO at LINK Mobility.

The IPO is expected to comprise an offering of new shares in the Group to raise gross proceeds of approximately NOK 2.5 billion. In addition, the IPO is expected to include a sale of shares by existing shareholders in the Company.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used to repay current debt liabilities, strengthen the Group’s balance sheet and fund future acquisitions in addition to investments in R&D and product development, in line with the Group’s strategy.

Seven cornerstone investors have undertaken to acquire shares for a total amount of NOK 2.3 billion in the IPO, subject to certain conditions and for price per share of up to NOK 47.00, which equates to a pre-money equity value of approximately NOK 10 billion based on the current shares outstanding.

These seven cornerstone investors are i) Swedbank Robur Fonder (NOK 600 million committed), ii) DNB Asset Management (NOK 500 million committed), iii) The Government Pension Fund of Norway, Folketrygdfondet (NOK 500 million committed), iv) Delphi Funds, a part of Storebrand Asset Management AS (NOK 250 million committed), v) Luxor Capital Group (NOK 175 million committed), vi) TIN Fonder (NOK 175 million committed) and vii) Didner & Gerge Fonder (NOK 100 million committed).

Subject to receiving the relevant approvals from the Oslo Stock Exchange and the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, as well as prevailing equity capital market conditions, the Company is expected to have a first day of trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange in Q4 2020. Further announcements relating to the IPO will be made in due course.

ABG Sundal Collier ASA and Jefferies International Limited are acting as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners in the IPO, while Carnegie AS is acting as Joint Bookrunner and SpareBank 1 Markets AS is acting as Co-Lead Manager.

AGP Advokater AS is acting as Norwegian legal counsel to the Company and Paul Hastings LLP is acting as international legal counsel to the Company. Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS is acting as Norwegian legal counsel and Davis Polk & Wardwell London LLP is acting as international legal counsel to the Managers. TRY Råd is acting as communications adviser.

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