SDL International Ltd, a UK firm which offers international language translation software and services, says it expects to raise 11m pounds ($17.6m) in a listing on the London Stock Exchange which will value the company at 45m pounds ($72.1m). The Maidenhead company has brought on-board two heavy-hitters from the UK IT industry to help it negotiate the flotation.
David Svendsen, chairman of Microsoft UK, and Chris Batterham, business development director at UUNet, MCI Worldcom Inc’s internet service provider subsidiary are the new faces. Svendsen will bring a rounded experience of our sector said SDL founder and CEO Mark Lancaster, while Batterham’s value lies in his savvy in dealing with the city, he said. At Unipalm, Batterham stage-managed flotation in 1994, a takeover by UUNet in 1995 and a management buy-out in December 1996.
The company said that the cash raised from the initial IPO will be spent marketing the company and forming five or six partnerships with content developers. Lancaster said that SDL would complete the acquisition of a small Swedish-based multilingual services company, giving SDL coverage in the Nordic region as well as a Spanish translation firm. The company, currently in Denver, Dallas, San Jose and Boston, may add two more offices in New York and San Francisco to its US operations. SDL will start trading on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday December 9.
