The flagship of French Tech could make one of the biggest deals of the year in Paris this fall. The Klaba family, founders of the web hosting company, owns 80 % of OVHcloud. The valuation could reach several billion euros.
After Believe, which despite difficult beginnings, succeeded in its IPO last week, OVH is preparing its entry on Euronext Paris. The operation was made official on Monday. According to the Journal du Dimanche, which revealed the information this weekend, the 2,400 employees of this other figure of French Tech and the Next 40 label will be involved in the listing and the Klaba family will remain in the majority, regardless of the outcome of the operation.
The latter currently holds 80 % of the shares of a company whose valuation could reach several billion euros. The remaining 20% are held by the funds KKR and TowerBrook Capital Partners, which entered the capital in 2016.
Cloud computing
Based in Roubaix in northern France, OVH is a web hosting company, renamed OVHcloud in 2019 to reflect its new positioning in cloud computing.
Founded in 1999, OVHcloud is now the leading alternative cloud provider in Europe.
If market conditions allow, the IPO could be carried out in the coming months and in any case by the end of the year. Its CEO Michel Paulin since mid-2018 said this Monday morning aiming for a realization this fall.
Additional resources
"We believe that we have reached a stage today where the IPO will give us additional resources and visibility in our markets", said Michel Paulin on Radio Classique. "We are a European player, but today we have the capacity to offer our services all over the world."
"Our infrastructure spans five continents and 183 countries, with 30 data centers and numerous points of presence. For over 20 years, OVHcloud has designed and built its own servers and data centres - using the latest and most innovative components - and maintains its own global fibre optic network", the company explains on its website.
OVHcloud competes with American giants Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure and Google Cloud.
In March, the IPO project had already been announced by the founder Octave Klaba, but in the wake of a fire that devastated a data center of the company in Strasbourg and caused disruptions to many websites.
OVH reported revenue of €632 million in 2020, up 5% from 2019, and Ebitda of 255 million.