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Succesful Placement of SAF-Shares - Oversubscription of 8.6 Times
- Issue price of € 17.60 at upper end of price range
- Approximatley € 20.5 million Euro of net proceeds for the company
- Co-founders Dr. von Beringe and Prof. Dr. Arminger remain the two largest individual shareholders
Tägerwilen/Switzerland, April 6th, 2006
The Switzerland-based software company SAF AG determined the price for its shares at € 17.60 yesterday after the expiry of the subscription period together with the shareholders and the lead manager BNP Paribas. Thus, the price lies at the upper end of the pricing range from € 13.40 to € 17.60 and reflects the high interest of the investors. All of the 2,719,025 shares offered (including the greenshoe of 302,114 shares) were allocated. The issue was oversubscribed by 8.6 times and comprises a volume of in total over € 48 million (including greenshoe). The company receives about € 20.5 million of this amount. From today on, the shares will be trading at the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol S4X and under the ISIN CH0024848738.
„We have managed to reach another important milestone with the IPO. We are highly satisfied with the outcome and have reached our targets. Now we can focus our energy on the further expansion of the company“, said CEO and co-founder Dr. Andreas von Beringe.
Slightly more than 1.3 million of the approximately 2.7 million shares emerge from a capital increase, while 1.4 million shares are a part of the stocks from existing shareholders and from the company itself. The second figure includes a greenshoe of about 302,000 shares, which the consortium banks have been granted by the four investment companies Ventizz Capital Fund II LP (“Ventizz”), Techinvest Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (“Techinvest”), PAARL Ventures GmbH, and New Value AG.
With the proceeds from the IPO, SAF is mainly intending to drive the expansion in the United States and other markets forward. Attractive growth opportunities also exist in Europe and Asia. The technological advantage of the SAF software shall not only be maintained, but be enhanced. Moreover, SAF aims to establish itself in further segments, e.g. in the consumer goods, the automotive, and other manufacturing sectors or in the pharmaceutical, banking, transport, or services industry.
The co-founders Dr. Andreas von Beringe and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Arminger are the largest individual shareholders after the IPO with just over 18 percent respectively. At full drawdown of the greenshoe, the four investment companies will own about 14 percent of the shares. The Free-Float will amount to nearly 50 percent.
Proven Bookbuilding-Procedure - Decoupling
“We are happy about the trust of our new shareholders. Throughout the road show, we convinced the investors of our business model and of our growth potential”, said von Beringe. “The issue price was determined in alignment with the market conditions and leaves some headroom for price increases.” SAF AG also applied the meanwhile established and modified marketing method called „Decoupled Bookbuilding“, which was also reflected by the oversubscription of 8.6 times. Using the common methods of price fixing, the range gets fixed at the beginning of the road show. Potential investors can place their purchase offer directly based on this value. With the „Decoupled Bookbuilding“ applied in this case, the price range gets fixed just a few days after the beginning of the road show, which allows the feedback of the approached investors to be taken into account.
The shares were placed within a public offering in Germany as well as through an international private placement outside of the United States. About 90 percent of the 2.7 million shares offered in total were assigned to institutional investors inside and outside of Germany. The remaining ten percent of the issued volume were distributed to private investors. Within this group, only subscriptions with a volume between 100 and 250 shares were considered in order to reach a broad investor base, and the respective assignments were limited to about 35 percent of the order volume.
Approximately 0.2 percent of the issue volume was allocated to members of the second level management of SAF in the form of a preferred assignment. Dr. von Beringe and Prof. Dr. Arminger have committed themselves to BNP Paribas not to sell any of their remaining shares for a period of 18 months without approval by BNP. For the rest of the management and the company itself, an equivalent obligation will be in effect for 12 months, as well as an agreement with the investment companies not to sell within six months.
SAF is being supported on the IPO by BNP Paribas as the lead manager and by Commerzbank and Sal. Oppenheim as co-lead managers.
About SAF AG:
SAF Simulation, Analysis, and Forecasting AG, specializes in the development of ordering and prognosis software for retail and industry sectors. SAF follows the concept of Demand Chain Management. Here the planning of goods supply is being driven by the customer’s demand. By applying SAF products, significant cost reductions can be realized. Also the basic logistic conditions as well as the accurateness of sales and stock forecasts can be optimized with the SAF software. Remarkable competitive advantages along the value chain can be reached with SAF: lower volume of goods in stock, an improved availability of goods, and a higher customer satisfaction.
On March 9 of 2006, SAF AG and the German Woolworth GmbH & Co. KG have been awarded by the “Bundesvereinigung Logistik” (BVL – German logistics federation) with a prize called “Logistics Service Award 2006”. Both companies have received this award for the implementation of customer demand orientated logistic services based on innovative forecast technology.
SAF AG was founded in 1996 by Dr. Andreas von Beringe and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Arminger and employs more than 50 people. In 2005, the company generated revenues of over € 7.4 million and a consolidated profit of € 2 million. Up to now, the company has customers in many European countries and in the United States. The headquarter is located in Tägerwilen in Switzerland. Furthermore, SAF owns a subsidiary in the United States named “SAF USA, Inc., Grapevine, Texas”.
Contact:
Astrid Strömer
Vice President Investor Relations
High-Tech-Center 2, Bahnstrasse 1
CH-8274 Tägerwilen
E-Mail: astrid.stroemer@saf-ag.com
Phone: +41 71 666 79 48
“This publishing is neither an offer for the purchase or the subscription, nor an invitation to place an offer for the purchase or the subscription of securities. All shares offered within the IPO process have already been placed. The shares of SAF AG (“the shares”) must not be offered or sold within the United States unless they are registered or exempt from the registration obligation under the terms of the American securities act of 1933 in the respective version in effect (“Securities Act”). The shares are not and will not be registered according to the Securities Act.”
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