Belfast-based IT firm Kainos in £161m London flotation

Belfast-based IT firm Kainos Software has announced plans to list its shares on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in an initial public offering valued at £161.3 million (€227.5 million).

The company is to place 37,691,763 ordinary shares at 139 pence per ordinary share, it said on Tuesday. The offer is expected to raise approximately £52.4 million (€73.9m) in proceeds for selling shareholders.

Kainos, which is one of the North’s largest locally owned IT services company, is to begin trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday morning.

The group, which began life as a Queen's University spin out, provides digital technology solutions to more than 140 clients in the healthcare, government and financial services sectors in Europe and the United States. Clients include Diageo, Travelex, Netflix and the National Health Service (NHS).

Established in 1986 as a joint venture between ICL and Qubis, the company recorded revenue of £61 million last year and pre-tax profit of £11.8 million.

The company currently employs more than 700 people in the North, the UK and at its Polish operations. In February it announced plans to create over 400 jobs in Belfast and Derry.

Kainos chief executive Brendan Mooney said he believed the recognition investors had shown was testament to the hard work undertaken by the company over the past few years.

Mr Mooney said the company was focused on growing further in its existing markets in the coming years.

“We’re in three absolutely fantastic growth markets and they have been great for us over the last four years and we see things accelerating in these sectors going forward. The opportunities we have in our existing markets is phenomenal.”

He said the decision to list on the London Stock Exchange was largely due to the fact that a significant part of its business came from the UK.

“The reality is that about 6 per cent of revenues come from Dublin, about 6 per cent from the rest of Europe and the rest comes from the UK so if you look at our customer concentration it makes sense to be based in London,” he said.

Investec were the sole sponsor, financial advisor and bookrunner and broker to the deal. The group’s head of investment banking Andrew Pinder said Kainos’s flotation was further evidence that the London IPO market remains open for growing technology businesses.

Investec were the sole sponsor, financial advisor and bookrunner and broker to the deal. The group’s head of investment banking Andrew Pinder said Kainos’s flotation was further evidence that the London IPO market remains open for growing technology businesses.