tTech raises $50.2 m in one minute
Published:Wednesday | December 16, 2015 | 12:00 AMSteven Jackson
Managed information technology services firm tTech Limited raised $50.2 million in one minute in its initial public offering (IPO), the first for a company of its nature on the junior market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The offer officially opened at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and was set to close today, December 18, but it closed at 9:01 a.m. because it was three times oversubscribed, tTech said in a release.
"We are now in a greater position for growth and equipped with the financial backing to grow our managed IT services, particularly our IT security services," Chief Executive Officer Edward 'Teddy' Alexander was quoted as saying following the closing of the offer. "As the CEO, I am elated to know that our employees and the wider public will now be owners in tTech," he added.
"The tTech team is elated and humbled by the support given to our company. We were always confident of a successful IPO, given our strategic direction and the positioning of the company at this time, but to be oversubscribed by this amount at opening is truly amazing," said Alexander.
According to Douglas Robinson of GK Capital Management Limited, "As arrangers of this IPO, GK Capital could not have asked for a better result. This is a company that we believe in and congratulate the tTech team on this milestone." NCB Capital Markets was the lead broker.
tTech presently has some 25 full-time staff who have benefited from an employee share offer which was a part of the public offering.
Most of the 25.7 million shares, representing 24.2 per cent of the company, was offered to the general public at $2.50 per unit. Just under 30 per cent of the stock being made available through the IPO was reserved for consultants and employees of the company at a 70 per cent discount.
Proceeds from the IPO is to be used to inject capital into the company, allowing further development in managed services, particularly in the area of security, as more clients move their IT infrastructure into cloud computing.
Alexander, a former director and chief information officer at conglomerate GraceKennedy, started the company in 2006.
tTech provides outsourced managed IT services which include IT security, infrastructure management, user support, voice solutions and cloud services to local businesses.
It started out managing the core IT infrastructure of GraceKennedy and said it has since expanded to firms in virtually all sectors, including financial services, retail, maritime, manufacturing, fast food, legal, government and hospitality.
For the six months to June 2015, tTech generated $81 million in revenue, 28 per cent higher than year-earlier levels. Pre-tax profit grew by 23 per cent year-on-year to $12 million in the first half of 2015.
tTech had said that it would not proceed with a listing and would return applications if it did not raise at least $50 million.