NEW YORK-Transcrypt International Inc., a designer and manufacturer of information security products for wireless and wireline voice and data communications, plans to go public.
The company, headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 3.75 million shares of common stock, which will trade on Nasdaq. The anticipated price range is $12 to $14 per share. Dain Bosworth Inc., Minneapolis, is lead underwriter of the proposed offering.
Transcrypt plans to use the proceeds to repay about $1.2 million in debt, for working capital and general corporate purposes, including enhancing its sales and distribution capabilities and expanding its manufacturing facilities. Some of the capital raised by the IPO also may be used to finance acquisitions of “complementary businesses, products or technologies,” according to documents filed with the SEC.
Transcrypt International’s traditional primary market for wireless security products has been the land mobile radios used by public safety workers, fleet managers and government agencies. In September, the company began shipping its Stealth 25 handheld, dual-mode (digital and analog) land mobile radio.
The new product incorporates requirements of APCO 25 standards developed by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officers Inc.
These standards evolved as the result of a 1995 Federal Communications Commission mandate that “all new LMR equipment utilize more spectrally efficient, narrowband 12.5 kHz transmission system, which will effectively require all LMR users to migrate to digital LMR systems,” Transcrypt’s SEC filing said.
The company also makes information security products for cellular telephone systems. Motorola Inc. introduced a Transcrypt-branded MicroTac cellular telephone, which incorporates Transcrypt International’s add-on scrambling modules, in September.
