Shares of Ping Identity jump 25% in U.S. market debut

(Reuters) – Shares of Ping Identity Holding Corp (PING.N) jumped 25% in their market debut on Thursday, giving the identity software company a market value of about $1.46 billion.

Ping Identity’s shares opened at $18.75 and rose to as much as $19.74 in early trade.

The company priced its initial public offering at $15 per share on Wednesday, raising about $187.5 million at a valuation of about $1.16 billion.

If underwriters exercise their option of purchasing an additional 1.9 million shares, gross proceeds from the offering can be as much as $215.6 million.

The company said it intends to use the IPO net proceeds to repay outstanding borrowing under its term loan facility. (bit.ly/2mi6wqC)

Ping Identity counts the likes of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) among its rivals in user identity management that helps verify which employees can access what technology at a company. Such services are becoming increasingly necessary as corporate employees need to securely connect to many applications in the cloud to get their work done.

Ping Identity, owned by buyout firm Vista Equity Partners, had posted revenue of $201.6 million in 2018, up about 17% from a year earlier. It reported a net loss of $13.4 million for 2018, compared with a profit of $19 million in 2017.

Vista Equity bought Denver-based Ping Identity for $600 million in 2016. An IPO would be a rare example of Vista Equity cashing out on an investment through a stock market flotation, as it tends to sell its portfolio companies outright, to large public companies or other private equity firms.

Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Citigroup are the IPO’s lead underwriters.