HR may be boring, but it’s lucrative: TriNet prices IPO at $240M

TriNet CEO Burton Goldfield is having a good day.

He watched his company rake in $240 million as it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning. The cloud-based human resource outsourcer sold 15 million shares at $16 each, valuing the company at more than $1 billion.

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The San Leandro, Calif.-based company serves as the human resource department for nearly 9,000 companies — “and we hope to be the HR department for many, many more in the future,” Goldfield told VentureBeat this morning.

The company has 60 offices around the United States, staffed with over 300 HR representatives, so TriNet customers can usually bring someone on-site when necessary. But the company also has a cloud-based service portal (accessible through a browser or mobile app) that enables it to process over $17 billion in payroll each month, administer medical plans, review expense reports, and more.

TriNet competes with HR solutions from Automatic Data Processing, Paychex, and Insperity, among others. Goldfield claims his company’s industry-specific approach sets TriNet apart. For example, all TriNet reps working with financial institutions have master’s degrees in business administration, he said.

TriNet’s revenue rose to $1.64 billion in 2013, up 61 percent from a year earlier. Its net income fell to $13.15 million last year, however, from $31.83 million the prior year.

Much of that revenue growth has come through acquisitions. TriNet has snapped up premium HR services firm Ambrose Employer Group, risk management provider Gevity HR, and expense reporting firm App7.

Subtracting those acquisitions, Goldfield pegs the company’s organic revenue growth at 18 percent.

“We are really pleased with our ability to grow in this unpenetrated market,” he said. “We believe we’ll be around for a long, long time, and this is just the next step in our evolution.”

The company’s top shareholder is private equity firm General Atlantic, which holds a 56 percent stake in the company following its IPO. At the time of publication, TriNet is trading at $18.77, up 17.3 percent from its $16 opening price.

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