EQT-Backed SAP Rival Eyes Stock Market Return as Early as 2020

(Bloomberg) -- IFS AB, the Swedish software maker owned by EQT Partners, is on track for a stock-market listing as early as 2020.

It’s "very likely" that IFS, which competes with larger rivals SAP SE and Oracle Corp., will IPO late next year or the year after, Chief Executive Officer Darren Roos said in an interview.

IFS will by the end of 2021 generate "well over $1 billion in revenue,” said Roos, who joined IFS last April after four years in top positions at SAP. EQT declined to comment.

IFS, which employs about 3,700 staff, says its products are cheaper and easier to implement and use than those of its bigger rivals, which tend to lock customers into long maintenance contracts. IFS says it offers clients the flexibility of up- or downgrading its standard software on the go, and gives them a choice whether they want to move to the cloud or not.

More than half the company’s license revenue in the second quarter came from new customers, causing IFS to raise its sales guidance for the year to $711 million.

EQT bought IFS in 2015, when it was listed on Sweden’s stock exchange. The private equity firm has since took the company private and bolstered it with several acquisitions, including that of U.S. cloud software firm Acumatica last month. IFS’s new listing would likely be outside Sweden, Roos said.

--With assistance from Sarah Syed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Andrew Blackman

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