Alphawave confirms London IPO plans

Alphawave IP said it intended to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in an initial public offering expected to value the company at up to £4.5bn.

Confirming plans outlined on 22 April, Alphawave said it would sell new shares to raise about $500m alongside a sale of shares by existing shareholders. The offer price will be decided after a book-building process with potential investors.

The company was founded in 2017 and uses digital processing to speed up connectivity as the growth of devices and digital integration puts pressure on existing connections. It has predicted the market for its existing products would grow to $1.5bn in 2025 from $500m in 2020 and the market for future products would be more than $50bn by 2024.

Alphawave said sources of demand included data centres, networking and storage, with extra potential growth in 5G wireless infrastructure, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Tony Pialis, Alphawave's chief executive, said: "I am excited to confirm our intention to list on the LSE. The listing will help us extend our leadership by accelerating and expanding our new and innovative portfolio of products, as well as expand our base in Canada into the UK, where we will continue to grow our business and partnerships globally."

Revenue in the year to the end of December was $32.8m - a compound annual growth rate of 161% since the year to the end of May 2018. Operating profit grew 207% on the same basis over that time to $17.5m