Contractor heads to Wall Street with IPO filing

Who’s afraid of a shaky economy? Not the executives at Global Defense Technology & Systems Inc., who filed today to take their company public.

No date has been set for the initial public offering. The company expects to raise $75 million with the IPO, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The investment bank Cowen and Co. is managing the process for Global Defense Technology, of McLean, Va. The company is owned by the Global Strategies Group.

The company’s executive team includes John Hillen, president and chief executive officer, and James Allen, executive vice president and chief financial officer. Hillen joined the company in August 2008. Previously, he was president of what is now CGI Federal. He also led the defense and intelligence business at American Management Systems Inc., before it was sold to CACI International Inc.

Allen joined the company in May 2009 and was previously chief financial officer at CACI, GRC International and Veridian Corp. While at Veridian, he helped lead that company through an IPO. 

Global Defense Technology has customers in the defense and intelligence markets. Its capabilities include software engineering, technology development, systems engineering, engineering design, protyping and integration, and mission system information technology and architecture.

In 2008, the company had $189.4 million in revenue. For the first six months of 2009, the company brought in more than $103 million.

The company plans to trade under the ticker GTEC on the Nasdaq stock exchange.