The French champion of cloud computing wants to raise about 350 million euros through its IPO.
Last March, a huge fire broke out at one of OVHcloud's sites in Strasbourg. The French - and European - leader in cloud computing was then under fire, but things have since calmed down and the news of the group founded in 1999 by Octave Klaba is now much more focused on its IPO, which should be the third major operation of the year for French tech after the IPO of Believe in June and Exclusive Networks last month. Both IPOs were not as successful as initially expected.
This mitigated success is perhaps at the origin of a revision of the ambitions of OVHcloud. Indeed, while the French group aimed, a few months ago, a fundraising around 400 million euros, are now expected "only" 350 million euros. A substantial amount, however, and if successful, should allow OVHcloud to be more or less at the level of valuation of Sorare: the unicorn had increased its capital in September to reach a valuation of 3.7 billion euros.
OVHcloud estimates that it could be valued between 3.5 and 3.75 billion euros with a share price that should be between 18.5 and 20 euros. The first listing is set for October 15. Olivier Klaba and the management of OVHcloud should therefore be able to quickly verify the good reputation of the company with investors.
Through the press release detailing the operation, OVHcloud specifies that it seeks to obtain the means to accelerate its development, especially internationally, while competing with behemoths like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. The company currently has 1.6 million customers in 140 countries, employs a total of 2,400 people and expects its sales to grow by 25% by 2025. Favoring investment, the management of OVHcloud specifies that no dividend will be paid to shareholders while Olivier Klaba and his family will retain a large majority in the group, around 70% of shares.
