EPAM Systems completes IPO after cutting offering price and size

Tom Paine





Newtown-based EPAM Systems, Inc., a provider of outsourced informations system development services, has completed its IPO. It is trading on the NYSE under the symbol EPAM.

EPAM had to cut back sharply on the size of its offering. It sold only 6 million shares at $12 per share; originally it planned to float 7.4 million shares at $16-18 per share. Only 1.5 million of the shares were sold by the company, with the rest being offered by existing shareholders, meaning that proceeds to the company would be about $18 million. EPAM opened at $13.75 and closed at $14.00, up 17% from the original offering price. Its market value is in the $600 million range.

Sometimes referred to as the Cognizant of Eastern Europe, most of EPAM's developers are located in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. Half of its revenue in the first nine months of 2011 came from North America; clients include several major tech and financial giants such as Google, SAP, Oracle, Barclays Plc and Citigroup. It has over 7,000 employees. Arkadiy Dobkin, EPAM's cofounder, CEO and President, came from Belarus and after migrating to the US worked for Colgate-Palmolive and SAP Labs before starting EPAM. Its services include end-to-end development capabilities, technology consulting, Infrastructure and hosting, QA & testing, and maintenance and support. Revenue for the first nine months 0f 2011 was $239 million, and net income was $32 million.

It is the first significant information technology IPO in the Philadelphia area since Radnor-based QlikTech went public in July of 2010.

(Update 2/13/2012: In response to an email, an EPAM spokesperson tells Phiily Tech News that EPAM has about 150 employees located at its Newtown headquarters.)




permalink