DragonWave plans US IPO & NASDAQ listing

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 27 September 2009 17:10

IT Industry - Strategy

Hot on the heels of winning the contract to supply microwave backhaul for Unwired's Perth mobile WiMAX network, DragonWave, a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has announced an initial public offering of its shares in the US and plans to list on NASDAQ.

DragonWave proposes to offer 7.5 million shares and existing shareholders will offer a further 5.5 million shares. The IPO will be conducted through a syndicate of underwriters led by Canaccord Capital Corporation and Piper Jaffray & Co.

The offering will be "priced in the context of the market with the final terms of the offering to be determined at the time of pricing." At current prices the offer of the 7.5m new shares would raise approximately $C60m ($A63m).

DragonWave expects to use the net proceeds to:
- strengthen its balance sheet in preparation for new mobile broadband network deployments and to better position it to be selected as an equipment vendor for large network service providers;
- fund working capital needed to accelerate sales and production of DragonWave's products, and - to continue to fund efforts to increase sales penetration in regions outside North America.
DragonWave is presently represented in Australia by TR Telecom but the company is in the process of appointing a new distributor for Australia.

Last week Unwired named DragonWave as the supplier of microwave backhaul systems for the 150 mobile WiMAx base stations it will roll out in Perth.