Edi Truell looks to sell Tracker Network in £100m IPO
Venture capitalist Edi Truell has hired investment bankers to advise him on the possible sale of Tracker Network.
Truell hopes the vehicle tracking firm, which has sales of around £20m per year, would be worth around £100m.
He has hired bankers at Evercore to look into the possibility. Alternative options include debt financing, a trade sale or an injection of growth capital from venture capital funds.
Truell said he has had expressions of interest from mobile phone firms who are keen to access Tracker’s 1m customers, and from automotive firms who expect the sector to keep growing.
“We’ve just had a board meeting on the topic,” Truell told City PM last night.
“Tantalum Corporation acquired Tracker last year and combined it with best in class automotive telematics. Tracker has just passed a big milestone, helping the police acquire 500,000 stolen vehicles, so we are in a market leading position.”
He added: “That leads to the strategic question – do you sell, or do you raise more money to grow? We will run the different options to ground over the next six weeks or so.”
The market for initial public offerings is currently effectively on hold, as sellers wait until the general election is over before selling shares.
But aside from that uncertainty, the backdrop for flotations is relatively healthy. Last year saw a huge wave of initial public offerings as investor sentiment improved sharply.