AAA Nokia exits Gridsum in $87m IPO

Nokia exits Gridsum in $87m IPO

Communications equipment manufacturer Nokia exited China-based data analysis software provider Gridsum Holding on Friday in an $87.1m initial public offering in the US.

The company issued 6.7 million American Depositary Shares (ADS’s) on Nasdaq priced at $13.00 each.

Underwriters Goldman Sachs (Asia), Citigroup Global Markets and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company have the 30-day option to buy another one million ADS’s, which would lift the size of the IPO to approximately $100m.

Founded in 2005, Gridsum supplies machine learning-equipped data analysis software to multinational and domestic businesses and government agencies. It made a $4.5m net loss in the first half of 2016 from revenue of $22.3m.

Steamboat Ventures, a Chinese venture capital affiliate of entertainment and media group Walt Disney, led a 2010 series A round of undisclosed size for Gridsum before Nokia’s corporate venturing unit, Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), invested an undisclosed sum the following year.

Generation Gospel, a holding vehicle for Gridsum CEO Guosheng Qi, holds 100% of the company’s class A shares and 3.7% of the class B shares, giving it a 65.7% share of the voting rights post-IPO.

NGP was not listed as a 5%+ shareholder in the IPO filing but Steamboat Ventures’ class B shares were diluted from 19.8% to 14.3% in the offering.

Other notable shareholders include Fairy Spirit and Garden Enterprises, both of which are holding vehicles for Gridsum executives, which now have 14.7% and 5.8% stakes respectively.

Quantum Strategic Partners, an investment vehicle for Soros Fund Management, bought 225,000 shares, but its proportion of the class B shares was cut from 11.6% to 9.3%. Goldman Sachs unit Broad Street Investments’ percentage was diluted from 12.6% to 9.1%.

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