One of the leading security solutions developer Data Fellows decided on October 17, 1999 to file an application for the Company’s shares to be publicly traded on the Main List of the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Trading of the shares on the Pre-list began on November 5, 1999 and on the Main List on November 9, 1999.

The offering consisted of up to 6,260,000 shares, of which three largest existing shareholders offered up to 610 000 shares for sale and the Company offered up to 5,650,000 new shares for subscription. Shares in Data Fellows were offered to Finnish and international institutional investors, retail investors in Finland and the Company’s employees globally. The company informed that the main purpose of the offering was to broaden the company’s ownership base and to create a new financing source to support and enhance the further growth of the business.

The final price per share in the Initial Public Offering of Data Fellows was EUR 7.7 per share. The transaction met significant demand from both domestic and international investors. The institutional offering was more than 35 times oversubscribed and the retail offering approximately 31 times oversubscribed. After the offering, the ownership of the members of the board of directors and the executive management group was reduced from 98,5% to 74,7%.

Approximately 86 % of the shares offered for sale were allocated to institutional investors and approximately 58 % of the shares allocated to institutional investors were allocated to non-Finnish institutional investors. In total approximately one thousand institutional investors from some seventeen countries placed orders in the institutional offering. As a result of high demand shares from the institutional tranche were transferred to retail tranche, which increased the number of shares in the retail offering by 28,7%. All accepted subscribers in the retail offering were allocated just 25 shares. On its first day of public trading on November 5, 1999 Data Fellows closed remarkably at 27,45 EUR on turnover of 115 million EUR. After the strong start Data Fellows slipped down as the investors took profit from the rise. According to dealers Data Fellows share is yet to find its right price level because it is difficult to set a price for a company like Data Fellows, whose value is mainly based on future expectations.

Surprisingly, the Listing of Data Fellows shares took place at the Helsinki Exchanges. It was commonly speculated that the company will be listed at Nasdaq in the United States. According to the Company’s CEO, Risto Siilasmaa, the reason for the timing and the place chosen was that there are not many technology shares on the move in Europe and that Data Fellows is much more widely known in Finland than in the United States. However, it would not be impossible that Data Fellows ended up in Nasdaq too, says Siilasmaa.

Data Fellows offers a broad range of integrated anti-virus, file-encryption and VNP-solutions for workstations and gateways. The company aims to be the leading provider of centrally managed and widely distributed data security solutions. At August 31, 1999 the company had 235 employees worldwide.

Data Fellows has been able to increase substantially its sales during the last few years. Trademark F-secure has a strong position in the market and sale and company’s sale and marketing organisation has broadened widely. However, strong investing in marketing has clearly decreased company’s result. During the first nine months of 1999 the company’s sales were EUR 15,4 million (EUR 7,9 million in 1998; comparable period) and result EUR -1,1 million (EUR 0,7 million in 1998; comparable period).

The members of the board of directors of Comptel Plc decided on November 23, 1999 to start the initial public offering of the company. Public trading of the shares on the Pre-List begins on December 9, 1999 and on the Main List of the Helsinki Exchanges on December 13, 1999.

In the IPO a total of 7,400,00 shares were offered representing approximately 34,6 per cent of the total shares in Comptel. In the offering 7,000,000 shares were sold by Helsinki Telephone Corporation and 400,000 new shares in the company were issued. The final price per share in the institutional offering was EUR 19, in the retail offering EUR 16,5 and in the employee offering EUR 14,85.

A total of 6,025,000 shares were sold in the institutional offering, 1,165,000 shares in the retail offering and 210,000 in the employee offering. The transaction met exceptionally high demand from both domestic and international, especially institutional investors. The institutional offering was approximately 50 times oversubscribed, the retail offering approximately 12 times. All accepted subscribers in the retail offering were allocated only 25 shares. In the IPO subscriptions were made for approximately FIM 35 billion (approximately EUR 6 billion).

Comptel develops, markets and sells software and IT services to telecommunication operators. Comptel’s main product is mediation software (MDS software), which is used to collect data from telecommunications network equipment (such as telephone exchanges) and to refine such data into a form where it can be processed by billing and customer care solutions. In addition to mediation services, Comptel provides system development services to telecommunications operators in Finland. Comptel markets its mediation software both through its partners and directly to the customers.

As its main competitors the company names EHPT from Sweden, Tertio from UK, Asecom, CGI, MSI Metapath from United States and Architel from Canada.

The strategy of the company is to strengthen its position as a mediation software developer and supplier although it is speculated that the company will broaden its range of software development in the future. However, according to vice managing director of Helsinki Telephone Corporation, Jukka Alho, Comptel is going to concentrate on mediation software. It is a global business and interesting enough for Comptel, says Alho.

During the first nine months of 1999 the sales amounted to EUR 26,9 million (EUR 16,3 million in 1998; comparable period) and the result EUR 9,1 million (EUR 2,9 million in 1998; comparable period). At September 30, 1999 the company had 334 employees.

This article contains general information on the subject matter and shall not be relied upon for a specific case. Specialist advice should be sought with respect to any specific circumstances.