The software firm's CEO said it was preparing for an IPO or sale in the next two to four years.

A media report says that Warburg Pincus is working with Goldman Sachs and Barclays on the planned 2020 sale or possible initial public offering of Avaloq, the banking software firm working with many wealth managers.

Warburg Pincus, which owns 45 per cent of the Swiss organisation, is expected to launch an auction in the first quarter of 2020, Reuters reported late last week. (Avaloq founder Francisco Fernandez, management and employees also hold shares in the company.)

The newswire said that Warburg Pincus, Avaloq and the banks declined to comment.

Avaloq's chief executive Juerg Hunziger had said this year that the company was preparing for an IPO or sale within the next two to four years, without giving a more exact time frame.

With geopolitical uncertainties and a possible slowdown to the global economy next year, any timing of an IPO or sale will carry some uncertainties.

Avaloq, as the reported noted, supplies  software for financial institutions such as Barclays, BBVA, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Rothschild, Societe Generale and Vontobel. Its software programmes manage $4.5 trillion in client money.

In September this year Avaloq reported a 5 per cent year-on-year rise in revenues reaching SFr288 million ($291.3 million) for the first six months of this year. The firm said that it had chalked up a number of new client wins and implementations over the period. Moody’s recently renewed its credit rating at B2 stable. Avaloq was rated initially in June 2017 just before Warburg Pincus, the private equity house, completed its minority stake acquisition in Avaloq.