Russian IT services and security provider Softline Holding sets a price range of $7.50-$10.50 for its London and Moscow IPOs, valuing it at as much as $1.93B
Yuliya Fedorinova / Bloomberg :
Context & Ripple Effects
Softline, a Russian IT services and security provider, put a deliberately wide band on its dual listing — $7.50-$10.50 per share across London and Moscow — with a ceiling valuation of $1.93B. The follow-on coverage shows how the book actually cleared: a week later the company raised $400M at about $1.5B, meaning it sold shares toward the bottom of that range rather than near the top.
That discount matters because the security sector's public-market record was already cautious: SecureWorks' flat first-day close at its $14 IPO price in 2016 had established that infrastructure-security listings rarely get a pop. Softline's sub-ceiling pricing extends that pattern to a services-and-security hybrid selling into two exchanges at once.
First-order effects
- Softline banks $400M of new capital across the LSE and MOEX while accepting roughly a $400M+ haircut versus the $1.93B ceiling its bankers floated — existing holders are diluted at a lower mark than the range promised.
- London gains another emerging-markets tech issuer on its boards even as Moscow builds an alternative payments system under western sanctions, making the dual structure a hedge against either venue souring.
Second-order effects
- Rival Russian IT services firms eyeing listings now have a benchmark that says the market pays for the London leg but discounts the growth story, pressuring them to widen their own ranges or shrink deal sizes.
- The weak clearing price for an IT-services security firm sharpens the contrast with pure software: four years later Netskope would raise its range mid-process and price at the $19 top end, showing product companies command the premium services firms do not.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, security-sector IPOs split into two pricing regimes — asset-light cloud software that can push ranges upward versus services-heavy integrators that clear below their ceilings — pushing services firms toward private capital or strategic buyers instead.
- For Moscow specifically, each successful dual listing deepens a parallel listing venue that survives sanctions-driven decoupling, structurally reducing Russian issuers' dependence on any single Western exchange over time.
The trend: Security and IT-services issuers are learning that public markets price distribution and headcount far below recurring cloud-software revenue, forcing a widening valuation gap between the two models.