hSenid looks to next growth wave via historic IPO

 hSenid Business Solutions Chairman and Director Dinesh Saparamadu (centre) at the Investor Forum yesterday on the upcoming IPO. Others from left: NDB Investment Bank CEO Darshan Perera, CT CLSA Holdings Group COO and Head of Investment Banking Zakir Mohamedally, hSenid Business Solutions Director and CEO Sampath Jayasundara and NDB Investment Bank Chief Corporate Advisory Officer Nilendra Weerasinghe – Pic by Ruwan Walpola

• 20% stake amounting to 55.4 m shares on offer at Rs. 12.50 each raising to Rs. 692 m
• hSenid Business Solutions currently serves over 1,300 customers in 40 countries with agile human capital management software 
• IPO funds to be channelled toward product and market development along with strategic acquisitions in the Asia Pacific and East Africa regions

The first enterprise software firm to list, hSenid Business Solutions, is looking for its next growth wave globally and locally via the Rs. 692 million worth Initial Public Offering (IPO) subscription to which opened yesterday.

hSenid Business Solutions (HBS) is offering 55.4 million ordinary non-voting shares (20% stake) to the public at a price of Rs. 12.50 per share. The official opening of the IPO is 3 December.

The company said funds raised via the IPO are to be channelled toward product and market development, along with strategic acquisitions in the Asia Pacific and East Africa regions. 

Over the past five years, HBS has demonstrated robust growth in PAT, combined with healthy margins and exceptional performance across all fundamental indicators.

Founded in 1997, HBS is a successful global Sri Lankan software solutions company, specialising in state-of-the-art HR solutions. Its software is empowering 1 million across 1,300 local and global giants among 20 diversified industries in over 40 countries and multiple business sectors, with a strong presence in Asia Pacific and Africa. hSenidBiz presently employs over 250 people and has contributed towards over 4,000 individual tech journeys during its 25-year history.

hSenid Chairman and Director Dinesh Saparamadu said: “As an indigenous multinational, we are committed to doing our part in developing the local tech industry. I wish to ensure that while our company grows, we also divert resources to up-skill local tech professionals and help start-ups get off the ground. 

“As a key player in Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM sector, we are proud to be able to support the nation’s growth trajectory through our net positive forex flows, while also helping to increase awareness about and access to foreign markets for Sri Lanka IT/BPM companies.”

“We also pledged to continue delivering exceptional value to all stakeholders as we seek to play an even bigger role in Sri Lanka’s growth story,” Saparamadu told an investor forum yesterday, adding: “We are confident of receiving broad-based interest in our IPO and look forward to the opening day.”

HBS Director and CEO  Sampath Jayasundara said the IPO is an exciting milestone for all stakeholders of hSenidBiz.

“This has not been a journey of just a few individuals but an entire network of dedicated employees, partners, customers, advisors and our shareholders. We were fortunate to have worked with big local and global corporations as it gave us unique insights into HR practices and helped us develop innovative solutions that can be scaled globally,” he said.

“From the team point of view, it has been a great strength to have the right people from consulting to engineering, to build a global solution. This has definitely been a stepping-stone to benchmark our products with leading international brands and added new features based on unique customer requirements and considering different industries and geographical contexts,” Jayasundara added.

He also said HBS’ global expansion across 40+ countries would have been impossible without the global partner network. “While, we thank all who have stood with us in this journey, we eagerly look forward to the new opportunities this IPO holds for the future of hSenidBiz. 

“We strongly believe that we have a tremendous opportunity to build a global HR solutions brand that can tweak world-class solutions for different contexts and needs, and we believe we can take the lead in APAC and African regions,” he added.

NDB Investment Bank is the Lead Managers to the Issue, and CT CLSA Capital, Co-Managers to the Issue.

They said the HBS is uniquely positioned to grow whilst its recurring revenue is 48% and the dollar linked revenue being over 90%.

They also said the IPO offers a strong upside of 18% based on Discounted Cash Flow. “In terms of trailing and forward PER, the IPO offers attractive multiples at a significant discount to regional peers,” they added.