Fabrika PO wants to retry IPO in autumn, hopes for improved rating
MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - PJSC Fabrika PO, a developer of AI-based software that operates under the FabricaONE.AI (F1AI) brand and is part of Softline Group , is planning to attempt another IPO in autumn, and is hoping for an improved rating and a lower key rate, Fabrika PO CEO Maxim Tadevosyan said.
Fabrika PO was planning to place its shares on the Moscow Exchange on April 30; however, it postponed the IPO due to the "deterioration of external conditions". The company said then that it could come back to the question of the IPO when conditions improve in future.
"We are in the process of receiving a credit rating. After this, the plan is as follows: the company will confirm its targets after the first six months, confirm its forecasts for both revenue and EBITDA, and then it will be ready to take part in a new road show as early as September-October, in order to ultimately realize its public status and place shares on the stock market - correspondingly, with a higher rating this time and possibly a lower key rate in the Russian economy," Tadevosyan said at an online investors conference on Tuesday.
He said that the company had decided to delay the IPO scheduled for April 30 "due to negative news events on the market".
"This was a difficult decision for us, because much had been invested in resources, time and effort. In terms of feedback from the market, investors and analysts, I can say that this was the right decision, because we had support. We believe that this was the right decision at that moment," Tadevosyan said.
The company officially announced its plans to conduct an IPO on the Moscow Exchange on April 20, stating a preliminary price of 25 rubles per share, corresponding to a market capitalization of 14 billion rubles excluding funds raised in the IPO. The book building was to be complete by April 29 and Fabrika PO shares were to start trading on the Moscow Exchange on April 30.
The indicative amount of the offering was at least 2 billion rubles, corresponding to 80 million shares according to the stated IPO target: around 14% of the company's charter capital excluding funds attracted. Investors were only offered shares from an additional share issue. The company planned to use all of the funds raised in the placement to fund future growth and scale the business.
Not long before the planned IPO, parent company PJSC Softline reported that the court had imposed interim measures on a range of its assets as part of bankruptcy proceedings for a company named Integration LLC. The investigations involved former shareholders of several legal entities acquired by Softline Group in 2023. Softline disputed the interim measures and they were subsequently lifted.
Fabrika PO unites assets and expertise in the field of AI technologies, custom development and industrial software. According to the company's prospectus, its largest shareholder is PJSC Softline with 68.5% of charter capital. Another 11.6% belongs to Softline subsidiary Investprojects LLC and 19.9% to the Axiom Capital closed-end mutual fund, managed by Balance Asset Management.
