Elizabeth Leigh
American Systems CEO Peter Smith has not closed the doors on the 100-percent employee-owned company going public but said current conditions are not yet ripe for a stock market launch, the Washington Business Journal reported Wednesday.
“We consider everything – going public, merging with another ESOP, staying just the way we are – but we’ve never gotten to a place where it is in the best interest of the shareholder to go public, not to say it wouldn’t happen or couldn’t,†the 35-year company veteran told the publication.
Jill Aitoro writes Smith, who became chief executive in August 2014, watched the company grow from a small privately-held contractor into one of the larger ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) firms in the United States.
He told the newspaper that benefits of employee ownership bring benefits in modeling, management and finance functions and added that model helps the company a “the longer view†of what’s ahead when it comes to stock gains.
Smith also said American Systems plans to make acquisition moves into the health information technology space.
