SAP Taps Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan for Qualtrics IPO
SAP Taps Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan for Qualtrics IPO
(Bloomberg) -- SAP SE is working with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on its plans to list its Qualtrics software unit in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
Less than two years after buying the company for $8 billion, SAP announced this week it would pursue an initial public offering the unit, signaling a strategic shift under new Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein.
SAP will keep a majority stake in the business after the U.S. listing, which in turn will make Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith the biggest single shareholder, the company has said.
SAP is seeking to maintain ownership of at least three quarters of Qualtrics although its plans aren’t finalized and could still change, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
SAP is also in talks with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. about a role and is likely to hire several more banks as underwriters as the listing gets closer, the people said.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were the lead underwriters on Qualtrics’s planned IPO in 2018, before it was instead acquired by SAP. JPMorgan was not listed as an underwriter on that deal, filings from the time show.
Representatives for SAP, Qualtrics, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
An IPO could value Qualtrics, which measures and generates reports on customer and employee satisfaction, at as much as 16 billion euros ($18.9 billion), according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysis, more than twice what SAP agreed to pay in late 2018 in its biggest-ever acquisition.
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