Cyber security giant Avast launches Britain’s biggest ever tech float

A cyber security giant is floating in London aiming to raise $1 billion from the City and fund expansion plans in what would be the biggest-ever UK tech float, it emerged on Thursday.

Avast Software, the brains behind virus protection for more than 400 million mobile phone and computer users across the globe, is the arch rival of UK firm Sophos, the only other cyber security firm listed in London.

Avast first tried to float on Nasdaq in 2012, a bid that was aborted due to “tough market conditions”.

This float will see the company, based in the Czech Republic, raise $200 million to pay down debt and another $800 million for other purposes, including for executives to sell off shares. That is about 25% of the company’s equity, potentially valuing the company at $4 billion (£3 billion).

While the float might be seen as good for London and its burgeoning tech scene, it is unlikely to pass without controversy. Chief executive Vincent Steckler, a Californian who joined Avast in 2009, was embroiled in an SEC fraud probe back in 1999.

After a six-year investigation the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined Steckler for accounting violations while working for a firm called Logicon. The SEC ruled that Legato, a Silicon Valley software firm, “recorded millions of dollars in revenue and income from phony transactions arranged by its senior sales executives”. Steckler, a key customer of Legato, “aided and abetted” these deals, said the SEC.

Sources close to the Avast float said that while executives will be taking some money out from the float, this would mostly be to pay tax bills.

The company has 1,700 staff, with around 100 in the UK. Its anti-virus kit has 14 million UK users. Avast offers both free and paid-for anti-virus software. It says such security measures prevent two billion cyber-attacks a month.

Steckler declined to comment on the float directly, but said: “Over the past 30 years, Avast has grown from a visionary start-up to the number one consumer cyber security company with 435 million users worldwide.”

He added: “This transformation of our company has happened because of the dramatic increase in the number and types of threats around the world which are a growing concern to people, and Avast’s ability to stay ahead of the bad guys.”

It had sales last year of $780 million.