Cybersecurity company Avast is looking to float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) next month.
The Czech Republic-headquartered company could reach a £2.8bn valuation in the initial public offering, potentially making it London’s largest ever listing for a tech company. It hopes to raise about £140m of cash through the listing, which is expected in May, and will largely be used to cut debt.
Avast is backed by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which took a majority stake in the business in 2014. The company boasts around 435 million users worldwide, with approximately 35% of users in the Americas, 48% of users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 17% of users in Asia Pacific for the year ended 31 December 2017. Last year, it achieved a turnover of $780m last year.
The company provides its security solutions to consumers and businesses. It offers a next-gen feature set and provides ‘fast, accurate detections’ thanks to the largest threat detection network in the world.
For added server and data protection, Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus combines powerful data, identity, and server protection with features of Avast Business Antivirus.
Its solutions help protect passwords, provides shields for emails and web, behaviour monitoring, and software defence. It also helps identify unrecognised files, secure connections and ensures every website visited is trustworthy.
Vincent Steckler, CEO of Avast, said the company’s rapid growth was “because of the dramatic increase in the number and types of threats around the world which are a growing concern to people, and Avast’s ability to stay ahead of the bad guys with new and evolving technologies and products.
“We are proud of our award-winning security products and amazing technical experts in R&D, which have positioned us well to take advantage of this expanding consumer cybersecurity market which is expected to grow 10% annually and reach $21 billion by 2021. Our large user base creates a strong network effect and powers our advanced next-generation security engine which uniquely combines the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence and big data to keep people around the world safe online.”
Its Freemium business model also uses its consumer platform to provide highly targeted cross-sell and up-sell opportunities for its premium products. “This has resulted in strong revenue growth over the past three years, high margins and an attractive cash conversion rate,” Steckler added.
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