Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand celebrates the IPO of Ping on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, September 19, 2019.
Shares of Ping Identity jumped 25 per cent in their market debut on Thursday, giving the identity software company a market value of about US$1.46 billion.
Ping Identity's shares opened at US$18.75 and rose to as much as US$19.74 in early trade.
The company priced its initial public offering at US$15 per share on Wednesday, raising about US$187.5 million at a valuation of about US$1.16 billion.
If underwriters exercise their option of purchasing an additional 1.9 million shares, gross proceeds from the offering can be as much as US$215.6 million.
The company said it intends to use the IPO net proceeds to repay outstanding borrowing under its term loan facility.
Ping Identity counts the likes of Microsoft among its rivals in user identity management that helps verify which employees can access what technology at a company. Such services are becoming increasingly necessary as corporate employees need to securely connect to many applications in the cloud to get their work done.
Ping Identity, owned by buyout firm Vista Equity Partners, had posted revenue of US$201.6 million in 2018, up about 17 per cent from a year earlier. It reported a net loss of US$13.4 million for 2018, compared with a profit of US$19 million in 2017.
Vista Equity bought Denver-based Ping Identity for US$600 million in 2016. An IPO would be a rare example of Vista Equity cashing out on an investment through a stock market flotation, as it tends to sell its portfolio companies outright, to large public companies or other private equity firms.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Citigroup are the IPO's lead underwriters.
(Reporting by Abhishek Manikandan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
