Harneys advises Suppple Group PLC on £200 million Luxembourg listing
Harneys Luxembourg, together with South African based AcaciaCap Advisors, assisted Suppple Group PLC, a UK based technology company, with its successful provisional listing on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, with a market capitalisation of £200 million. Its Class A shares were provisionally listed and commenced trading on the Euro MTF market of the LuxSE on 14 May 2024.
Suppple is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) API technology platform designed to assist governments of all sizes, across the globe, to rapidly organise, digitise and automate their functions. Suppple was founded to address the profound need for a technology integration and orchestration layer to resolve inter-governmental system and data fragmentation challenges. The name of the company is derived from a synonym for resilience and represents the creation of “Social impact Using Public-Private-Partnerships”.
The founders of Suppple, Eldrid Jordaan and Goitse Konopi, previously led GovChat, the official communication platform of the South African government. The GovChat technology platform enabled real-time feedback and reporting through a WhatsApp chatbot.
After their success with the development of GovChat, the founders embarked on a new challenge in the form of Suppple. Suppple’s suite of APIs powers governments’ digitisation, process automation, data modelling and integrations at all levels. The software that Suppple builds is the unseen, underlying infrastructure that supports public sector functions. SupppleAPI is an API platform that enables developers, governments, and commercial clients to create features that link to their existing technology and data sources.
The company is focussed on three mandates: an IaaS/software platform for governments (APIs and integrations); a public sector data bureau, which brings together public-private data systems enabling verification, authentication, and fraud detection; as well as enabling start-ups to connect with policymakers and private sector partners.
Listing on the LuxSE aims to bolster Suppple’s financial stability and enhance its attractiveness to investors, which is expected to support the company’s plans for expansion into new markets and sectors. The current listing on the Euro MTF market of the LuxSE is provisional in nature, becoming definitive once it meets the 25 per cent free-float requirement of the LuxSE. Given the substantial interest that Suppple has already received from potential investors, the company is confident to meet the LuxSE’s free float requirement within the next three to six months.
Following Suppple’s successful provisional listing on the LuxSE, the next step is to perform a private placement focussed primarily on the South African investor market. The private placement will be followed by an inward listing of Suppple’s Class A shares onto the A2X in South Africa. In relation to all stated South African aspects, Suppple is advised and assisted by AcaciaCap Advisors. On the basis that the prospectus that was prepared for purposes of the LuxSE provisional listing will essentially also serve as the offer document to be used for private placement to be undertaken in South Africa, AcaciaCap Advisors worked hand-in-hand with Harneys Luxembourg and Suppple in preparing the LuxSE listing prospectus.
The Harneys team was led by Partner Charl Brand and Associate Cara Furniss-Scott. Charl commented: “Harneys is privileged to have been made a part of Suppple’s venture. We look forward to a close working relationship with Suppple going forward, in our capacity as LuxSE listing agent, to ensure that the company remains fully compliant with its ongoing obligations in terms of the LuxSE Rules and Regulations. We wish the company the very best of success, as it sets out to roll out its business plan. I would also like to sincerely thank the LuxSE for its continued excellent service to Harneys and its LuxSE listed clients.”
Harneys Luxembourg has over 20 years of experience in listing companies from various jurisdictions on the Euro MTF market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The Euro MTF market was first introduced in 2004 as a multilateral trading facility, which benefits from less stringent requirements than the Bourse de Luxembourg market, as it is outside the scope of most EU regulations and is regulated largely by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s own rules and regulations. It is especially attractive for companies wishing to inward list on a second exchange in South Africa, offering investors both EU and non-EU market exposure.
