Cross Match will offer IPO after all

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.—Cross Match Technologies, a biometrics manufacturer with fingerprint, iris and facial offerings, announced this week the intention to go forward with an initial public offering. This intention was first announced in April of this year, but the offering was postponed in August due to “volatile market conditions.” Now it will proceed with the offering of 9,420,290 shares, 8,333,334 of which will be primary shares, the rest from selling shareholders. “The markets have improved,” said Cross Match vice president of corporate communications and investor relations Pam Rembaum. “We were prepared in August, and now conditions have improved to go back out again.” Originally, more shares were going to be offered from shareholders, and the price estimate has broadened, from between $14 and $16 a share, to between $13 and $17 a share. If all shares sell for the mid-point of the estimate, $15, Cross Match stands to raise more than $141 million. Rembaum said proceeds from the offering would be used to fund acquisitions, provide working capital and repay approximately $4 million in debt. “We do have about $21 million in cash,” Rembaum said, “so that’s always a good sign, but in order to go forward and grow we need that additional capital for internal organic growth and R&D.” W.R. Hambrecht will act as the sole book-running manager for the offering. Stanford Group Company and E*Trade will acts as co-managers. The company, perhaps best known for its fingerprint-capture devices, which are used by US Visit, the FBI, and recently received SAFETY Act certification, introduced iris-recognition capabilities to the market in September, and bought German facial recognition developer C-VIS GmbH in June of last year. Cross Match now waits for SEC approval of the IPO, which it hopes will come shortly. For more on this story, see the December issue of Security Systems News.