Check Point Software Technologies today announced it has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the public offering of 5.5 million ordinary shares, only nine months after its IPO. According to its present price, Check Point will raise a total $140 million, more than any other Israeli offer ever made in the US. However, the company itself will only sell 800,000 shares at $21 million. The remaining 120 million shares will be sold by Check Point’s shareholders.
Check Point primary shareholders are BRM of Jerusalem, whose three owners - Nir and Eli Bareket, and Yuval Rechavi - hold 8.46 million shares. BRM will sell 2.5 million shares, putting $65 million in the owners’ bank accounts.
During the Check Point IPO, BRM’s owners sold shares at $6.3 million and continue holding shares valued at $186 million. BRM invested $200,000 in Check Point’s establishment in July 1993. This is without a doubt the best venture capital investment ever made in Israel.
Number two on the list of sellers are Check Point’s founders - Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer - each of whom hold a share bloc valued on paper at $120 million. Each of the three will sell 400,000 shares in the present issue, bringing another $10 million along with the $3.5 million gained in a share sale which accompanied the company’s IPO.
The secondary share offering will be managed by the investment banks who succeeded so well in Check Point’s IPO. The offering will be managed by Goldman-Sachs, Hambrecht & Quist, Robertson, Stephens & Company, and Wessels, Arnold & Henderson.