Børsen newspaper reports that the IT company Milestone, which develops surveillance software, is valued at approximately one billion kroner. The decision was taken last year to list on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and the company has engaged JP Morgan as advisors and Carnegie bank as underwriter.

Payday
“There are 140 shareholders in the company: the management, the founders, the venture capital fund Index Ventures, the board and the employees,” Milestone’s managing director, Lars Thingaard, told Børsen.

According to Thingaard, the motivation for the move is the two founders’ desire to get their money out of the company. “The founders are sitting with the whole of their fortune in one asset. Very few financial advisors would recommend that,” he said.

The venture capitalists are also keen to exit their investment in the company. “Index Ventures have been in for a few years, so they want out,” said Thingaard. The fund invested 150 million kroner in Milestone in 2008.

Optimism
Independent analysts and Milestone’s direction are optimistic about the success of the listing.

“Being a company in security and software development, a niche area with high margins and good growth, will mean that it’ll hit a relatively high multiple,” Per Surland, a partner in the corporate finance company Advizer, told Børsen. He told the paper, however, that the final valuation will depend on the growth outlook in the current and coming financial years.

Thingaard points to the recent successful listings of ISS and OW Bunker as positive signs. “The market looks exciting, it looks attractive,” he told Børsen.