Anti-virus software firm Avast has lowered the upper end of the range of the price at which it expects to float its shares tomorrow.
The range has been cut from the previously indicated 250p – 320p to 250p – 270p and news agency Reuters reports that it will probably float its shares at the lower end of that range.
READ: Cyber security firm Avast BV targeting market cap of between £2.5bn to £3.2bn in IPO
Avast, which is based in the Czech Republic, is set to be one of London’s largest ever technology listings with an expected market capitalisation of around £2.5bn.
Backed by private equity, the cyber-security outfit is saddled with debt of around US$1.35bn so its enterprise value – essentially its market cap adjusted for cash and debt – will be around US$7.9bn.
The current record for biggest London listing is held by Russian gold company Polyus, whose float gave it a £6.3bn market value.
In 2017, Avast had adjusted revenue of US$780mln and adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) of US$451mln.
The company was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis in 1988 and according to www.crunchbase.com, it employs between 1,001 and 5,000 employees.
Well known for offering a version of its anti-virus software free for personal use, it took out one of its major competitors, AVG Technologies, for around US$1.3bn in July 2016.
Together, the two companies have their software installed on more than 435mln devices, of which around 145mln are mobile devices.