According to Reuters, Apollo Global Management is preparing to take ADT public at a more than $15 billion valuation, stating the listing could be the largest private equity-backed initial public offering since Hilton Worldwide Holdings went public with a $19.7 billion valuation in 2013.
Apollo purchased ADT, ranked No. 1 on the SDM 100 and No. 3 on SDM’s Top Systems Integrators Report, in 2016 and merged the company with Protection 1. ADT had an estimated 8 million subscribers and $358 million in RMR at the end of 2016.
At the time of the acquisition, Marc Becker, senior partner at Apollo, said, “We are tremendously excited by this unique opportunity to combine two premier businesses. This transaction provides the opportunity to dramatically enhance our position in the large, fragmented and growing residential and business interactive electronic monitoring industry. Pro forma for the transaction, the newly created company will generate a combined $318 million in recurring monthly revenue and total annual revenue in excess of $4.2 billion, placing the businesses in a strong position to drive innovation and to capitalize on growth opportunities in the future.”
According to the Reuters story, an unnamed source stated ADT could register for the IPO with the SEC by fall and go public at the end of 2018. The IPO plans, originally reported in The Wall Street Journal, could change, however.
Rating agency Moody’s reported it expects Apollo and its co-investors to earn a total 2017 revenue of $4 billion for monitoring and services (excluding equipment installation revenue), growing at just under 2 percent. Moody’s stated this growth is modest but expected as Protection 1 drives cost synergies by implementing Protection 1’s best practices throughout the combined company.
This is a developing story. Check back with SDM for updates as they become available.