Toronto IT firm Softchoice among several in Canada turning to public markets
VANCOUVER • Softchoice, a Toronto-based information-technology company, is the latest Canadian tech firm to file to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In its filing, the company, which has not yet priced its offering, said it sees “tremendous opportunity” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and believes it’s well positioned to help other companies adopt the technology they need to enable a more remote workforce.
“The future of work is changing and companies need to leverage technology to provide more flexible working arrangements, secure remote access and enable collaboration, all with an eye to improving employee productivity and experience,” wrote Softchoice CEO Vincent De Palma in a letter in the company’s preliminary prospectus, filed with securities regulators Wednesday. “Properly implementing these changes and technologies represents a significant challenge as many organizations face structural skill and knowledge gaps to doing so. Solving these challenges/ complexities is at the core of what we do at Softchoice.”
The company declined to comment beyond what’s contained in their public filings.
Softchoice is among many Canadian tech firms turning to the public markets recently, though some have had mixed results. Vancouver-based online-class platform Thinkific debuted last month on the TSX with a roughly $1-billion valuation. Waterloo, Ont.’s Magnet Forensics completed a $115-million IPO earlier this month, up from its initially expected $90-million raise. Others haven’t been as successful. Vendasta Technologies in Saskatoon reportedly considered downsizing its $100-million planned offering in April and hasn’t provided an updated filing since March 22. Canadarm maker MDA also struggled to raise its targeted $500 million, falling 20 per cent shy.
This won’t be Softchoice’s first time going public. Founded in 1989, it originally went public on the TSX in 2002, before Toronto-based private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners took it private again in 2013. Birch Hill Group is listed on the company’s prospectus as its only principal shareholder. TD Securities and Goldman Sachs Canada will act as the joint bookrunners, while RBC Dominion Securities, National Bank Financial, CIBC World Markets, Scotia Capital, BMO Nesbitt Burns, Cormark Securities, Laurentian Bank Securities, ATB Capital Markets, Raymond James and Infor Financial will join them as underwriters.
Since going private in 2013, according to the filing, Softchoice has focused on collaboration and digital workplaces, software asset management and what it calls hybrid multicloud, meaning a combination of public and private cloud-technology partner solutions. The company — which, as of March 31, employed more than 1,850 people and had offices in 26 Canadian and American locations — now has about 8,700 customers and active accounts.
The company’s gross sales have grown steadily since 2018, the first year for which it provided financial data. In the three months ending March 31, 2021, it made US$434.9 million in gross sales compared to US$398.2 million for the same period in 2020. Softchoice’s last two financial years have been profitable. In 2019, it reported a net income of US$1.8 million, and in 2020, nearly US$2.1 million. For the three-month period in 2021, it reported a net loss of nearly US$2 million, compared to a loss of about US$24 million the same time the previous year.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially disrupted Softchoice’s business, according to the filings. In March and April 2020, the company struggled to fulfil customer orders due to supply chain issues, despite a general increase in demand. Though it overcame those issues, the company saw a slowdown in customer spending as clients deferred or modified information-technology projects amid economic uncertainty. As of the end of March 2021, it had seen a rebound in customer spending.
It sees further opportunity for growth in the North American IT solutions market, which it pegs at more than US$1 trillion. In the filings, it projects its business model can deliver doubledigit gross profit growth. The company believes it has captured an estimated one per cent of the North American market and has “immense market share opportunity that remains to be addressed.” It plans to continue growing by investing in its salesforce, attracting new clients, expanding services to existing clients, growing its relationship with its technology partners and through efficiencies, according to the filings.
The filings also offer a rosy financial outlook for 2022. The company anticipates more than US$300 million in gross profit thanks to market and salesforce growth, as well as improvements in its sales teams’ productivity. Its gross profit in 2020 was nearly US$238.3 million.