By Stephanie Hamel
(Reuters) -France's Planisware launched an initial public offering on Tuesday, valuing the software company at 1.11 billion euros ($1.18 billion) and marking the largest IPO on the Euronext Paris stock exchange in the last three years.
Planisware postponed IPO plans in October, citing a deteriorating market environment that prompted caution among investors.
Co-founder and chairman Pierre Demonsant said that despite the still challenging geopolitical environment, investors had encouraged the company to try again.
"Today we're back in a short private placement format with very strong support from long-term investors," he said during a call with journalists, adding the IPO order book was fully covered.
The expected valuation is at the lower end of the 1.11 billion to 1.25 billion euro range the company was aiming for in October.
"Markets may be higher, but the environment is still very volatile. So, we've opted to get off to a good start on the stock market," Demonsant said.
Planisware will offer up to 15,085,000 ordinary shares for 16 euros each - compared to 16-18 euros in October - to be sold for about 241 million euros, it said in a statement.
"There haven't been many IPOs in France recently, and there's plenty of time for a good one," Demonsant said.
The company - which provides project management software services to the likes of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Stellantis and PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) - said it hopes the IPO will boost its visibility in the software as a service (SaaS) sector.
Its shares are expected to start trading on April 18, with the company's founders retaining a majority stake.
In October 2021, French cloud computing firm OVHcloud's IPO was priced at 18.50 euros per share, giving it a market capitalisation of around 3.5 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9421 euros)