DataDesign AG, a Munich-based provider of e-banking and e- commerce products, begins a three-day bookbuilding process today for an initial public offering on 9 November, when its shares will begin trading on Frankfurt’s Neuer Markt. Yesterday the company announced the price range for the process, between DM54 and DM62 ($32.49-$37.30). It will be offering 495,000 new shares to investors, bringing its total shares outstanding to 1.7 million, explained DataDesign director Stefan Fender. Of the new shares on offer, only 410,000 will be available to the public, as a strategic partner and existing shareholder, German software company Plenum AG, is contractually guaranteed the acquisition of 85,000 shares to raise its stake in DataDesign from 10% to 12.5%. As such, the company expects to raise some $1.4m with the sale of what will represent some 29% of the company’s capital. In addition, small amounts of existing shares will be sold by the current shareholders, including founders and German venture capitalist Gold Sack. Fender said the capital raised by the IPO would be used to finance expansion, primarily through acquisitions abroad, with the UK, French and Italian markets as prime targets. He does not envisage buying into the US market, however, as it’s too big, and there’s money to be made in Europe. He explained that the company’s e-commerce software is basically a payments component which complements the internet shop software supplied by vendors such as of fellow German start-up Intershop AG, which also held an IPO this year. In e-banking, DataDesign offers packages for callcenters and telephone banking, as well as for self-service terminals. As such, among it counts among its competitors another German start-up that went public in mid-year, Brokat AG; and AD5 from the US.
