German security software house Utimaco Software AG is planning an initial public offering followed by a listing on Frankfurt’s Neuer Markt in February. Lead managers for the operation will be Sal Oppenheimer and Paribas, and the Frankfurt-based company says it plans to use the resulting capital for the consolidation of its market position, as well as further international expansion in the wake of its recent establishing of operations in Sweden and Finland. Utimaco develops security products for mobile computing (authentication, access control and encryption), network security (authentication and encryption), e-commerce (digital signatures and encryption) and the security infrastructure for smart cards. It had revenues of $22.19m in its 1997/98 financial year. A spokesperson for the company said no details regarding the number of shares to be offered or price range for the bookbuilding process have been decided yet.
