Is Misys Prepping For An IPO?

Initial Public Offering

In the long, slow march of tech initial public offerings seen so far in a languid 2016, could core banking supplier Misys be eyeing the parade?

The firm has hired several investment advisers to gauge the prospects, enlisting the aid of Moelis and Goldman Sachs, The Sunday Times reported. Other advisers, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan, have also signed on.

Should an issue indeed come on the board of the London exchanges, said the paper, the IPO could be worth as much as £5.5 billion — quite a return for significant stakeholders in the firm. Vista Equity Partners bought the company four years ago for £1.27 billion after merger talks between Misys and Switzerland-based rival Temenos were scuttled.

An IPO would be a change of direction for Vista, which earlier this month was rumored to be looking for a buyer for the entirety of its Misys holding, a process that has been ongoing since 2014 and has yielded no definitive deal among would-be buyers, including Canadian pension funds and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, said The Sunday Times.