HgCapital makes big gain on Xyratex IPO

HgCapital has made $145m on its investment in UK-founded Xyratex following its IPO on Nasdaq. The company was priced at $14 a share representing a market cap of $400m. HgCapital invested around $90m in the provider of storage subsystems and storage process technology in September 2003.

Xyratex opted for a US listing on NASDAQ because most of its business is carried out with US-centric customers. The company will sell 4,000,000 shares of its common stock at $14 per share. Existing shareholders will sell 2,956,522 shares at the time of the IPO and the underwriters in the initial public offering have an option to purchase a maximum of 1,043,478 shares from the selling shareholders, including HgCapital, to cover over allotments, if any. HgCapital will sell 1,367,391 of its shares at IPO and up to a further 482,609 shares if the underwriters purchase the maximum possible number of shares to cover over allotments. HgCapital will retain over 82% of its Xyratex shareholding after the IPO.

Xyratex increased its revenues from $83.6m in its fiscal year ended November 30, 1999 to $333.8m in its fiscal year ended November 30, 2003.