Price shares in Lightspeed POS jumped by 18 percent on its first day of trading last Friday, with the company’s shares rising as high as $20.22 CAD early in the day, before closing at $18.90. Current stock prices value the company around $1.7 billion.
The company’s shares rose as high as $20.22 CAD early in the day, before closing at $18.90.
Last week, Montreal-based Lightspeed formally announced the pricing of its initial public offering (IPO), of 15 million subordinate voting shares at a price of $16 per share, and set total gross proceeds of $240 million CAD. The announcement came about a month after the company filed its preliminary prospectus with securities regulators in February.
While the company initially stated its objective was to procure $200 million, the offering size was increased to $240 million as the price per subordinate voting share surpassed the initial marketing range of $13 to $15. Lightspeed also recently revealed a new integrated payments system in February, which was anticipated to become a top marketing feature for the company’s underwriters promoting the IPO.
Lightspeed, which develops cloud-based POS and e-commerce software for small to medium-sized businesses, appeared to have been gradually prepping for its IPO for a while. It closed a $207 million Series D funding round at the end of 2017, which Lightspeed used to help grow its presence globally. It also added former and OpenText and Google CFOs Paul McFeeters and Patrick Pichette to its board of directors in November, and selected Brandon Nussey as its new CFO last April.
Founded in 2005, the company has grown to 700 employees, with offices in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Europe. After declaring a net loss of $96 million for the fiscal year ending March 2018, which comprised a $60 million pre-tax redeemable preferred shares charge and operating losses of $21.9 million, Lightspeed generated $72 million in revenue over the past year, with over $50 million in profit.
As of publication, Lightspeed’s shares currently sit at $20, having increased by almost six percent since Monday’s open.
Image courtesy Lightspeed.
