February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Despite the recent share volatility on the American Nasdaq market, two more Irish high-tech companies have announced their intention to seek a listing on the exchange.
Eontec, a Dublin-headquartered banking software company, has raised $10.4 million in funding from a group that includes Esat entrepreneur Denis O’Brien and clients of Davy Stockbrokers.
The deal values the 6-year-old company at about $100 million. Eontec, which also has offices in America and Britain and a development center in Delhi, India, currently employs 140.
Company founder and chief executive officer Jim Callan holds an estimated 40 percent shareholding, while Eontec directors Kieran Collins and Colin Piper each hold 8 percent.
ICC Software Partners, which already had a 33 percent stake in Eontec, was involved in the latest round of funding, which also included the New York-based investment bank Allen & Company.
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Callan said the company sold Internet infrastructure software to banks that allows them to deliver a better, faster service to customers. It also runs on calls centers, for tellers, on TV and over the phone.
He said they would be looking at a float on the stock market next year.
"We will have another round of funding coming into us in about six months’ time and depending on progress will be looking at a float around then," Callan said.
The Nasdaq is a technology-heavy market comprised mainly of mid-cap stocks.
Silicon Systems, which is changing its name Parthus Technologies, is expected to float on the Nasdaq and in London within months. It employs 310 people spread throughout six development centers in Europe and America.
Founded in 1993 by chief executive Brian Nolan, it designs silicon chips for next-generation mobile devices like phones, hand-held computers and MP3 players that download music from the Internet.
It is being advised by merchant bank Goldman Sachs, which took a 23 percent stake in the company two years ago.
The government business development agency, Enterprise Ireland, owns a 10 percent stake and a further 25 percent of the stock is tied up in staff share options.