Montréal-based FinTech company Nuvei has officially set the price of its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) at $26 USD per share. The company is set to begin publicly trading on the exchange next week.
Nuvei announced the pricing early Thursday morning and a spokesperson for the company told BetaKit institutional investor trading started Thursday with public trading expected to begin next week.
A spokesperson for Nuvei told BetaKit public trading is expected to begin next week.
The pricing of $26 USD is an increase from what Nuvei had anticipated to be between $20 USD and $22 USD per subordinate voting share. Nuvei is now offering more than 29 million subordinate voting shares, for aggregate gross proceeds of $700 million USD, with Nuvei and the selling shareholders looking to pull in $625 million USD and $75 million USD, respectively.
The 17-year-old company will be trading on the TSX under the symbol NVEI. Upon closing of its offering, Nuvei could reach a valuation of almost $3 billion, which would make it one of the largest tech IPOs from Quebec and on the TSX itself.
Nuvei joins a growing number of Canadian tech companies looking to take advantage of the public markets. Most recently, fellow Quebec company Lightspeed launched on the New York Stock Exchange, joining a handful of dual-listed Canadian organizations. Tech companies Dye & Durham and Docebo have also gone public over the last year. Over the last few months, there has also been an influx of biotech companies eyeing the public markets to some success, including Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Repare Therapeutics, and Chinook Therapeutics.
Nuvei stated plans to use the proceeds from the IPO to repay some of its outstanding debts. The company also plans to use the financing to fund its “working capital requirements and further implement its growth strategy, which may include organic growth and product innovation initiatives as well as future strategic acquisition opportunities.” Notably, Nuvei is in the process of purchasing Dutch payment service provider Smart2Pay. The transaction has yet to be completed. In August 2019, Nuvei acquired UK-based SafeCharge International Group for about $1.1 billion CAD.
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The decision to go public follows a successful year of financing for Nuvei. In December, the Montréal company raised $358 million CAD in common equity financing, giving it an estimated value at the time of $2.65 billion CAD. The investment was raised mostly from existing shareholders, including Canadian private equity firm Novacap, some of Novacap’s limited partners, as well as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).
Founded by Philip Fayer, the company’s chairman and CEO, Nuvei provides payment solutions to merchants, technology, and distribution companies, serving companies in Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific region. Formerly Pivotal Payments, the company received one of its first large investments from Goldman Sachs totalling $60 million CAD in the mid-2000s. In September 2017, Novacap and CDPQ, along with Fayer, acquired minority stakes in Nuvei.
According to filings, following the IPO, Fayer is expected to control 35.85 percent of the total voting rights attached to all of the company’s issued and outstanding shares, 37.84 percent will be owned or controlled by Novacap, and 22.57 percent by CDP Investissements Inc.