Aker aims to make Cognite cash flow positive before IPO

Aker ASA

03/11/2023 11:42

OSLO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Norwegian conglomerate Aker ASA
 AKER.OL  wants its industrial software company Cognite to
become cash flow positive before a planned initial public
offering (IPO), Aker's CEO Oeyvind Eriksen said on Friday.
    Aker, controlled by Norwegian billionaire investor Kjell
Inge Roekke, has a 50.5% stake in Cognite, which also attracted
investments from Accel, TCV and Saudi Aramco  2222.SE .
    No date has been set for a Cognite listing but its
shareholders are working to make the company "IPO ready" by
seeking to boost its revenue and the customer base, Eriksen told
Reuters.
    "The target is to make the company cash flow positive in the
not too distant future. Before we will IPO Cognite, we will also
diversify and grow the customer base, both by companies and
industry segments," he said.
    Aker's third-quarter results published on Friday included
269 million crowns ($24.08 million) in revenue from Cognite, a
27.5% increase from the same quarter a year ago.
    Cognite's core earnings (EBITDA) were negative by 92 million
crowns in the third quarter, an improvement from a loss of 158
million crowns a year ago.
    "We see an opportunity for Cognite to become cash positive
by the end of the next year... Whether it happens depends on
investment decisions made by the company," Eriksen said.
    Cognite, which provides solutions for collecting, sharing
and analysing industrial data in order to improve efficiency and
security, launched its own AI tool in the second quarter.
    Global interest in AI, which has lifted shares of software
companies and computer chip makers, provided "great opportunity"
for Cognite, Eriksen said. 
    Last year, Saudi Aramco acquired a 7.4% stake in Cognite for
around $113 million, valuing the company at over $1.5 billion.
    Aker in its earnings report said Cognite had a net asset
value of 6.7 billion crowns.

($1 = 11.1696 Norwegian crowns)

 (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)
 ((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com; +47 9027 6699; Reuters
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