Baan buyer SSA Global prepares for IPO

US enterprise resource software vendor SSA Global, which last year bought Baan from Invensys, has filed for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock, worth an estimated $200m.

The company, which will be listed on Nasdaq, said it wanted to build on recent acquisition-sustained growth by funding further expansion and repaying debt, according to filings made with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SSA is likely to continue to capitalise on a market in consolidation as it moves into the area of corporate performance management, which provides top-level reporting and dashboards that use data from enterprise resource management applications.

Among its many acquisitions the company purchased Dutch vendor Baan, known for its financial software, and global supply chain execution provider EXE Technologies last year, along with a software applications division of Computer Associates in 2002.

SSA hopes the IPO will help it top the $1bn mark in revenues. The firm generated $297m in the first half of the financial year 2003-4.

Goldman Sachs & Co and Credit Suisse First Boston will underwrite the sale of stock, owned mainly by finance houses Cerberus Capital Management and General Atlantic Partners. The company is looking to trade under the Nasdaq stock ticker symbol 'SSAG'.

Philip Carnelley, Ovum analyst, stated: "Sage has made a very nice business out of acquiring going concerns in a similar space. SSA Global is making a good play to be the Sage of the [financial] mid-market.

"However, the competition is fierce: Sage too wants to be the Sage of the [financial] mid-market, and Microsoft's ambitions in the space are well known (and credible).

"It will be very interesting to see what valuation the markets place on SSA Global - a very different type of IPO to Google or Salesforce.com."