ISS Plans IPO Relaunch for 2015

Danish services firm ISS plans to relaunch its initial public offering in 2015 after a failed attempt last year, writes Reuters. ISS has been owned by Swedish private equity investment group EQT and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners since 2005.

Reuters – Danish services firm ISS plans to relaunch its initial public offering in 2015 after a failed attempt last year and a scrapped bid by security services firm G4S convinced it to focus on cutting debt and boosting growth.

ISS, which provides a wide range of facilities management services such as cleaning, catering, security, property management and support services, is one of the world’s biggest private sector employers with a workforce of more than 530,000.

“We are now focussing on the business for the next couple of years,” Chief Executive Jeff Gravenhorst said on Monday.

G4S dropped a planned 5.2 billion pound ($8.3 billion) bid for ISS in November following opposition from its own shareholders who were concerned about the price and the risks involved in the deal.

ISS, which has been owned by Swedish private equity investment group EQT and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners since 2005, said it made a record operating profit of 4.39 billion Danish crowns ($780 million) in 2011 on a 5 percent increase in revenue to 77.6 billion.

However, financial expenses of around 3 billion crowns, related mainly to servicing the group’s near 30 billion crowns of debt, led to a net loss of 507 million crowns for the year against 532 million in 2010.

For 2012, ISS said it expected continued strong growth in emerging markets and an overall organic growth rate of 4-6 percent, as well as an operating margin around the 2011 level, which was 5.7 percent.

“In 2012, ISS will maintain focus on the key operational objectives; (i) cash conversion, (ii) operating margin and (iii) organic growth,” it said.