Will Oberthur IPO By Year’s End?

New reports are surfacing that Advent International is planning its IPO for Oberthur Technologies, sources said to be close to the matter said, according to Reuters.

The sources indicated the the French smartcard maker, which is second on the list in terms of manufacturing size behind Gemalto, should go public in Paris by year’s end. Another unnamed source said the Euronext application should be made within two weeks.

Recently, the news around Oberthur has been that it would be bought, but those deals fell through after the negotiations fell through, Reuters reported — citing that the PAI and Silver Lake firms failed to make a bid after Advent expected 1.7 billion euros (about $1.9B) for the deal.

The unnamed sources indicated that Advent anticipated stronger prices as a result of listing on the French stock market; Advent is also reportedly working with banks for the IPO. The banks named include JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, as global coordinators, with Societe Generale, Natixis, HSBC and BNP Paribas also being involved in the deal, Reuters reported.

Oberthur’s earnings in 2014 hit 147 million euros ($165.5M pre-tax), which was up from the 132 million euros (about $148.6M) in 2013. Advent purchased the majority share (90 percent) of Oberthur in 2011 for 1.15 billion euros (around $1.3B).

In August, Gemalto reported that it saw a 33-percent boost in profit from operators in the first half of the year, it also revealed the closure of Softcard would cause its mobile revenue growth to take a dip — which also impacted its share value at the time. But on the plus side, Gemalto reported that it’s anticipating double-digit profit growth until 2017.

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