Calyx to scoop €10m in flotation

MAURICE HEALY is in line for a €10 million pay day when his company Calyx floats on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) next month.

Cork-born Mr Healy, 46, owns 90% of the company and plans to sell a 35% stake at the flotation.

The company, which provides a range of telecoms and IT services, is expected to be valued at €35m when shares begin trading, meaning a €10m gain for Mr Healy. After the flotation, Mr Healy will retain a majority stake.

Mr Healy was previously a senior executive in Alphyra and formed Calyx by buying Alphyra’s voice and data unit three years ago.

It is headquartered in Dublin and has offices in Cork and Limerick.

According to Mr Healy, the group, which has 170 employees, had revenues of €32.4m last year and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €3.5m.

The company said yesterday that it has an extensive client base, including AIB, Ulster Bank, the Revenue Commissioners and several government departments.

Mr Healy told the Irish Examiner last night that the company is eyeing several acquisitions in Britain and will use the proceeds of the flotation to get into the British market as well as invest in its business.

“We are using some of it to invest in our infrastructure; we are developing a big network operating centre in Dublin, which we will use to manage not only our network in Ireland but also in the UK next year. We are also investing in our call centre because we do a lot of technical support over the phone.

“We are looking at acquiring and we expect to be quite acquisitive over the next 18 months. We are looking at companies like our own that provide a similar service to as broad a customer base as we have.”

The flotation of Calyx on AIM will be a blow to the Irish Stock Exchange. It has lost a handful of public offerings to London in the last year alone. These included Smart Telecom, Cork firm EiRx, Clearstream Technologies and CNG Travel.

Mr Healy said: “The AIM market is a well established market for developing companies and that works for our point of view.”

The ISEQ has indicated that it is looking at developing its own AIM market, which does not place a huge regulatory or cost burden on smaller firms.