Noisy-le-Grand, July 5th 2005 - Staff&Line plans Alternext listing by the end of 2005 to accelerate European development
Staff&Line, the leading French software developer in IT Management (asset management, inventory, service desk and change management) is looking into an IPO on the new ALTERNEXT market by the end of the year.
ALTERNEXT was created by Euronext in May 2005 in order to facilitate financing for growing companies. Providing increased security and transparency, this new compartment responds to investor-demand.
Created in 1988, Staff&Line is a French software developer, specialising in the provision of IT management solutions. To date, the company has equipped over 2,200 customers in Europe and the United States, employing some fifty staff in France. Since 1998, Staff&Line has been backed by major venture capitalists (Sofinnova, Société Générale, Pre-IPO) and the Anvar. The company is enjoying steady growth and has reported a positive EBITDA since 2001.
In 2004, Staff&Line released EasyVista, a brand new full-web IT Management package designed for major corporate accounts and IT outsourcers. It has proved highly successful in the marketplace and already represents over 50% of the company’s licence sales. New customers who have recently adopted EasyVista include SNECMA, Vedior BIS, Fromageries Bel, Nespresso, French Air Force, French Infrastructure Ministry, Saint-Gobain, L’Oréal, Altadis, etc.
According to the firm IDC, the IT Management market will represent a global potential of €3.86 billion in 2008. This market growth is due to the following factors in particular:
- objectives set by public and private-sector organisations of all sizes to control and reduce IT costs,
- desire to enhance IT user productivity by improving the quality of support and request management
- pressure on companies from software publishers to ensure that they reduce software piracy (according to the BSA, in 2004, 45% of professional software applications in French companies were illegally installed)
- the need to reinforce IT security in order to optimise infrastructure management
- new accounting (IFRS) and legal (Sarbannes Oxley) obligations which have a knock-on effect on companies’ asset management
- IT outsourcers’ requirement for high-performance and homogenous tools to fulfil their IT management contracts while optimising margin levels
With 30% of the market share, STAFF&LINE is the leading IT management specialist in France, where the market originally developed. The company has now set its sights on becoming the European number one, by tapping into the huge potential of SMEs. To attract this customer segment, which is reputedly difficult and expensive to access, Staff&Line is relying on two tried-and-tested distribution methods: ASP and IT outsourcing. Staff&Line innovated in 2000 with the launch of a hosted solution which has already won over 500 customers worldwide (including 200 US customers) and enabled in excess of 2 million PCs to be managed. In outsourcing, the company now equips the leading French SME outsourcers: Osiatis, Help-Line (Neurones), Computacenter, IBM Global Service, Sogeti-Transiciel, Getronics, etc.
According to Jamal LABED, the company’s Managing Director and co-founder:
« Staff&Line is now seeking to enter a key stage in its development. Stock market flotation is first and foremost a method of raising capital in order to accelerate our development, mainly through targeted acquisition in France and Europe of competitors and publishers whose activity complements our own. In a market where the challenge is becoming strategic in several European countries, Staff&Line is aiming to consolidate its status as a key player. EasyVista, our new full-web solution, represents a technological and functional advance which is already recognised by the market. Listing Staff&Line is also an excellent way of developing the company’s reputation, strengthening the attractiveness of our project with regard to partners and thus attracting new talent."».
Staff&Line has commissioned Avenir Finance Corporate to act as listing sponsor and assist in preparing the company’s future flotation.
STAFF&LINE :
Since its creation in 1988, STAFF&LINE has positioned itself as an IT Management specialist. The company develops a comprehensive range of software applications for small, mid-sized and large infrastructures covering the full lifecycle of IT assets: user portal, service catalogue, service desk, asset management, automatic asset inventory, administrative and budgetary management and reporting.
STAFF&LINE now boasts over 2,200 customers in Europe and the United States in a range of sectors: Public Sector, Banking, Insurance, IT outsourcing and consulting, Retail, Industry and Media Technologies & Telecommunications.
