Arqiva scraps £6bn float amid market uncertainty

TV transmitter firm Arqiva has scrapped its £6bn float on the London Stock Exchange, saying current market conditions are too uncertain.

The IPO was set to be the biggest this year. The company, which owns many of the UK’s TV transmitters, had decided to float after a sale of the business fell through.

The company said in a statement this morning: “The board of Arqiva Group Limited and its shareholders have decided that pursuing a listing in this period of IPO market uncertainty is not in the interests of [the group] and its stakeholders, and will revisit the listing once IPO market conditions improve.”

Arqiva is owned by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, Macquarie and a handful of smaller Australian institutional investors. The business was looking to raise £1.5bn from the float, which it intended to use to pay off debts, and would have valued it at £6bn.

It was pursuing a sale process prior to its plans to IPO, but Arqiva’s owners rejected a final offer for a buy-out in October.

Read more: Arqiva shuns private sale in favour of raising £1.5bn from London float