KARACHI: Technology firm Avanceon Ltd has said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Octopus Digital Ltd, received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to circulate the prospectus for the issue of 27.3 million shares that will raise at least Rs793.1m.

A regulatory filing on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Aug 13 said the issue would consist of 20 per cent of the total post-IPO paid-up capital of Octopus Digital. The company will make the entire offer through the book-building method at the floor price of Rs29 a share.

Based on the interest from investors in the book-building phase, the price can go up to 40pc (or Rs40.60) above the floor price.

Bidders will place bids for 100pc of the issue size during book building on September 9 and 10, the notice said. The strike price will be the rate at which 100pc of the issue is subscribed. However, successful bidders will be provisionally allotted 75pc of the issue size (20.5m shares) and the remaining 25pc (6.8m shares) will be offered to retail investors on September 16 and 17.

In case the retail portion of the issue remains unsubscribed, the unsubscribed shares will be allotted to the successful bidders of the book-building phase on a pro rata basis, it added.

Octopus Digital grew its revenue more than 14 times in 2020 while its bottom line amounted to Rs208.6m, up 85 times from a year ago.

The company provides after-market support services to local and international clients.

It contextualises data that is buried in enterprise resource planning systems. Afterwards, it cleans that data in artificial intelligence–centric ways by storing and computing on cloud and then extracting insights that improve operational efficiencies and reduce risks for its customers.

The company intends to use the raised funds to develop various “digital dashboard platforms” to expand its services suite to achieve the automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, the prospectus said. The target markets for these services will be Pakistan, the Middle East and the United States.

The share price of Avanceon Ltd increased 0.34pc to Rs117.31 apiece on Friday.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2021