Wall Street (by Agamitsudo via Wikimedia Commons)
Wall Street
Wall Street (by Agamitsudo via Wikimedia Commons)
The number of 3D printing stocks listed on market indices is still relatively small, but another company is due to be welcomed into this exclusive club very soon.
This week, voxeljet - industrial 3D printer manufacturer and one of Europe's largest service centres for 3D-printed moulds and models for metal casting - filed its $100 million (£62 million, €73.8 million) Initial Public Offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The German company intends to list on the NYSE under the ticker VJET, joining fellow industry juggernaut 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) on the Manhattan index.
Voxeljet was founded in 1999 in Feridberg, Germany, and revealed its sales for the year ending June 30th 2013 were $11 million. This is relatively small fry compared to the likes of 3D Systems, Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) and ExOne (NASDAQ:XONE), which logged 12-month sales figures of $415 million, $325 million and $38 million respectively.
Nevertheless, voxeljet is widely considered a major player and industry pioneer focusing its research and development on producing and adapting high-speed, large-format 3D printing machines for industrial and commercial clients. The company's offering is set to expand to six types of additive manufacturing machine by the end of this year, while it has installed 52 of its systems to international customers since its inception.
Because of its perseverance with the technology and its investment into R&D, voxeljet has accumulated a portfolio of 170 US and international patents, with these investments beginning to pay dividends, as revenues for the business expanded by more than one-third (35 per cent) at a compound rate between 2010 and 2012, shooting up to $11.3 million.
Moreover, voxeljet reported a profit of $277,000 in 2012 thanks to the work it has completed for its high-profile role call of customers, which includes Ford, Daimler and BMW, as well as its work on producing stunt-double Aston Martins for the box office 007 smash Skyfall.
No pricing terms have been named as yet for the voxeljet IPO, but Piper Jaffray and Citi have been named as the joint bookrunners on the deal.
