Conditional access firm NDS is planning to raise up to US$100m in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The underwriters for the offering include Morgan Stanley,…
Conditional access firm NDS is planning to raise up to US$100m in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The underwriters for the offering include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan as leads along with Citigroup, Credit Suisse and UBS.
SatelliteFinance understands that a large part of the proceeds will likely go to existing shareholders, which include private equity firm Permira and media giant News Corp. A smaller portion will go towards repaying debt under NDS’ revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes.
In the SEC filing, NDS explained: “We entered into the revolving credit facility on 10 March 2011. Borrowings have been used to repay other indebtedness and for general corporate purposes. As of 30 September 2011, approximately US$4m was outstanding under the revolving credit facility, which bore interest at an annual rate of 3.7025% as of such date. The final maturity date of the revolving credit facility is 10 March 2017.”
In March this year, the company announced that it was looking to borrow approximately US$1bn to refinance existing debt. The financing was later split between a US$800m term loan, a €183 million term loan, and a multi-currency revolving credit facility of US$75m, of which US$4m is currently outstanding.
The number of shares to be listed and their price have yet to be revealed. The shares are expected to be traded under the ‘NDSG’ symbol.
The company, which was founded in 1988, could not be reached for comment before the press deadline.
At the beginning of 2009, Permira and News Corp bought out the remaining shareholders in NDS through a US$63 per share offer. The two companies then took the conditional access firm private, with Permira owning a majority 51% stake and News Corp the remaining 49%, having reduced its holding in the company from 72%.