(Reuters) – KKR-backed technology firm BMC Software has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, offering an early sign of a thawing market after a virtual shutdown for most of last year.
Spiraling global markets amid a widespread sell-off, particularly in the technology sector, and a geopolitical turmoil pushed many startups to shelve their stock market flotations last year till investor appetite improved.
As BMC sets out to test the IPO waters, a listing could see the company valued at between $14 billion and $15 billion, depending on the scale of market recovery, the source added.
BMC declined to comment on the matter.
In 2018, private equity giant KKR & Co had acquired BMC for $8.5 billion, including debt.
The U.S. IPO market has recently begun to show some signs of recovery as investor fears around a looming recession and further monetary policy tightening from the Federal Reserve ease.
A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an inflation rally fueled a bout of market volatility that prevented most initial public offerings in 2022, last week saw a flurry of listings. It is 15 months since there was a busier week, according to Dealogic data.
BMC, which provides software that helps companies organize their tech support functions, partners with major global firms including Dell Technologies Inc, Accenture and Wipro Limited, its website showed.
The news of BMC filing for an IPO confidentially was first reported by Bloomberg News.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
