- All-day event promotes contacts between investors and listed companies -
Paris –20 May 2014 – EnterNext, the Euronext subsidiary designed to promote and grow the market for SMEs[1], today hosted a forum for software publishers from the Paris region. The event — the first of its kind — led to 54 investor meetings for seven software companies listed on Euronext.
The forum illustrates EnterNext's commitment to fostering closer ties between issuers and investors, giving featured companies an opportunity to discuss strategy and prospects directly with potential investors. Hosts EnterNext and Midcap Partners sought to highlight the energy driving France's software industry, ranked fourth worldwide, which employs over 70,000 people and reported sales of nearly €5.2 billion in 2013. Today 32 companies in the sector are listed, and their share prices rose 37.7% on average in 2013[2].
“We are delighted with the success of our forum, which gave issuers and investors an opportunity to get to know each other better. The software industry counts some highly innovative companies with premium business models and excellent growth prospects. We are convinced that this forum, combined with support from EnterNext, will raise participants' profiles with investors,”said Eric Forest, Chairman and CEO of EnterNext.
Gilbert Ferrand, a financial analyst with Midcap Partners, added, “Information technology (IT) is one of the France's leading business sectors, showing exceptional vigour year after year. In IT services, we have seen the emergence of world-class players , along with a host of SMEs whose most dynamic exponents are now listed on the stock exchange. The software industry is equally vibrant, with over 30 mid-size companies now listed. Together they represent an invaluable store of expertise and diversification for asset managers interested in investing in the Small and Midcap segment.
Midcap Partners, a company specialised in this market segment, offers institutional investors comprehensive coverage of the businesses and sectors it tracks. Given software producers' outstanding expertise, we are particularly eager to raise our investor clients' awareness of what these companies have to offer and promote on-going discussions between the two.”
Companies taking part in the forum were Avanquest, Axway, Coheris, Harvest, LineData, Prodware and Prologue.
To celebrate the day, issuers and investors teamed up to ring the bell signalling the opening of trading on financial markets in Paris.