Sophos has been described as “London’s biggest ever tech float” by the media with the valuation at £1bn. However, this depends on how you define technology as JustEast has a value at over £2bn.
Sophos is a software company focused on providing IT security to the mid-sized companies. The solutions are cloud-enabled and as such they can be installed, updated and maintained easily.
In the last financial year to March 2015 the group saw adjusting billings growth of 9% in Q1, 16% in Q2, 18% in Q3 and 24% in Q4. In the first quarter of the current year to June 2015 growth came in at 24.7%.
The weighted average contract length over the last 12 months to June was 28.1 months. In June 2015 the group bought Relexion Networks for US$15m and in doing so obtained cloud-based e-mail security solutions.
The company appears to be high growth but also has a fairly high P/E valuation at a forecast 32.3X for the year to March 2017. Looking at the prospectus and the operating profit was US$22.2m in the year to March 2015.
However, after finance costs the group made a loss in the year to March 2015 and the previous two years. The proceeds of the offer were to reduce indebtedness and drive future growth.
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