Positive Technologies reported on the impact of U.S. sanctions on its IPO plans

Positive Technologies head Yury Maksimov positively assessed the impact of sanctions against the company on its plans to go public. It may shorten the timing of the IPO, and the “realized threat” of sanctions has ceased to be a threat

Positive Technologies, a cybersecurity company, plans to shorten the time of a stock exchange listing due to the U.S. sanctions imposed on it. Its CEO Yuri Maksimov told about it. He did not name specific placement dates, but specified that in a month or two “the panic will pass” and “the professional community will understand how the company will develop further”.

In the middle of March, E Hacking News reported about the plans of Positive Technologies to conduct an IPO at the Moscow Stock Exchange, placing up to 10 percent of the shares. The volume of the offering may be up to $200-300 million if the company’s value reaches $2-4 billion by the end of 2021. According to the Telegram channel SecAtor, Positive Technologies values itself at $1 billion, while Forbes quoted a figure of $580 million.

Maksimov specified that the IPO is one of the possible tools to make the company public. He considers a direct listing, when the company’s shareholders may start operations on the stock exchange, as a more likely option. “In a classical IPO a mass sale is assumed, with a greater focus on funds,” but the goal of making Positive Technologies public is not to attract investments, but to find co-owners who can bring “advice, examples, awareness” to the business. In particular, the company expects that IT people will be buyers of the shares.

Another goal of a public offering is to turn the stock into a liquid instrument so that it is possible to take out large loans against it and motivate employees.

Yury Maksimov “positively” assessed the influence of sanctions on the IPO plans of Positive Technologies. According to him, when a company in the cyber security industry is listed on the stock exchange, the very risk of sanctions being imposed on it provokes fear in investors and leads to a discount in the price. If, however, sanctions are imposed on such a company before the offering, “the realized threat ceases to be a threat.”