First published: 12th November 1999
Record Over-subscription and First-Day Trading
Espoo, Finland.- November 11, 1999 - Data Fellows Group (HEX: FSC), a leading provider of centrally managed widely distributed data security solutions, today announced the initial public offering of its shares on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The offering was oversubscribed more than 30 times.
The share price increased by more than 250 % from the IPO price to that at the close of the first trading day. This set a new record on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
In the institutional offering, demand exceeded the initial 5,360,000 shares offered for sale by more than 35 times. More than 1000 institutional investors from some 17 countries placed orders in the institutional offering. The lead manager, Enskilda Securities has exercised the over-allotment option to cover over-allotments in the institutional tranche on behalf of the underwriters. As a result of exercising the overallotment option, a total of 900,000 new shares will be issued representing EUR 18,000 increase in share capital.
The retail offering was over 31 times oversubscribed in two days and over 37,000 people subscribed to the shares. The initial price, EUR 7.7 per share, rose to more than EUR 27 in the first full day of trading.
In related news, shareholders of Data Fellows Corporation voted on November 4, 1999 to elect Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nokia Group, to its board of directors. As a member of the Nokia Group executive board, he has overall responsibility for Nokia's financial operations worldwide covering corporate finance and control, investor relations, acquisitions and real estate. He also oversees Nokia's business operations in the United States.