Romanian cybersecurity company Safetech Innovation to be listed on BVB’s AeRO market

Safetech Innovations SA, a Romanian cybersecurity company, has announced intention to list on the AeRO market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Before the listing, Safetech Innovations will carry out a private placement for new shares to raise 2.5 million lei from BVB investors. The placement for new ordinary shares of Safetech Innovations will take place in fall 2020, and it will be brokered by Tradeville. Cornerstone Communications will be the company’s Authorized Advisor after listing.

“We have been preparing Safetech Innovations for the Bucharest Stock Exchange investors for the past two years. We have revised our business model, improved our services offer, restructured the company internally and attracted reputable clients from Romania and abroad. As a result, our financial results have improved significantly. For 2020, despite the pandemic, we plan to increase our revenues with 15% and the net profit with approximately 60% compared to last year result. We are glad to announce that we are ready for raising capital and subsequently listing on the AeRO market. We are excited about the opportunities that capital market offers, and we want to continue growing Safetech Innovations into the cybersecurity player of reference on the Romanian market with the help of local investors,” said Victor Gânsac, CEO of Safetech Innovations.

Safetech Innovations was founded in 2011. It is the only company dedicated exclusively to information security on the Romanian market, which offers services both in the field of security and the implementation of security solutions. The company provides 24/7 cybersecurity monitoring and response, security audits, penetration testing, security risk management and security governance services. The company owns and operates STI CERT – Safetech Computer Emergency Response Team, one of the first private CSIRT established in Romania, internationally accredited, which provides companies from private and public sectors continuous monitoring of cybersecurity threats and intervention in case of security incidents. STI CERT offers 24/7 monitoring system, alerting, incident management and forensic investigations and it covers all types of cybersecurity incidents through centralized methods, ensured by a highly specialized team of IT experts and white hat hackers.

Safetech Innovations is the only company in Romania accredited as a partner in the NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP). The company has a broad portfolio of clients, having worked with more than 10 key institutions from the local financial-banking sector, international players as well as local companies from the energy, FMCG, telecom, IT&C and transportation sectors, just to mention a few. Safetech Innovations is currently owned by Victor Gânsac, the CEO and Paul Rusu, the CFO; they each hold a 50% stake in the company. Following the private placement, the current shareholders will maintain the majority stake in the business.

In 2019, Safetech Innovations recorded a turnover of RON 10.5 million, an increase of 56.4% compared to 2018 result and a net profit of RON 1.25 million, an increase of 26.3% compared to 2018. In 2019, the company had a net profit margin of 11.8 %. In the first half of 2020, Safetech Innovations registered a turnover of RON 5.3 million (+60.7% compared to H1 2019), a net profit of RON 450,246 (+61.5% compared to H1 2019), obtaining a net profit margin of 8.5%. For the full year 2020, the management expects revenues of an estimated 15.6 million lei and a net profit of 2 million lei. The company currently has 43 employees.

The 2.5 million lei to be raised in the private placement will be directed into investments. By listing on the stock exchange and having access to capital, the company identifies an opportunity in the development of innovative solutions and products in cybersecurity, but also in increasing the technical capacity by developing the security testing laboratory. Investments in these new projects will be able to generate significant revenues, being based on proprietary technology.

The management intends to float Safetech Innovations on the AeRO market before the year-end, subject to the processes and approvals required from all the relevant institutions involved in the listing, or, the latest, in the first quarter of 2021. Safetech Innovations will be the first cybersecurity company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The company’s shares will be available under “SAFE” ticker. The management plans to offer investors an attractive dividend policy, which will consist of partial cash dividend, part free shares distribution through capitalization of profits.

The global cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $152.7 billion in 2018 to $248.6 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2%. The studies show that security is one of the areas that Chief Information Officers expect to generate the highest expenditure in the next period, exceeding spending on the cloud or big data platform. This is further supported by the fact that the number of cyberattacks has significantly intensified in 2020 in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend is expected to continue as the cyberattacks, targeting both public institutions, including hospitals as well as private companies, will also grow in sophistication in the coming period