Afilias IPO: Irish web domain company takes the plunge with new listing October 21, 2014 Afilias, the Dublin-based internet service provider, yesterday defied the stock market gloom to launch a $100m (£62m) listing. The flotation, which is being led by mid-market broker Numis, will see the company list on Aim, the junior stock market next month. The company has the second largest number of domain names in the world and [...]
Another IPO bites the dust as webuyanycar.com owner BCA Marketplace pulls its listing October 21, 2014 Is this the end of London's short-lived IPO boom? Used car auctioneer BCA Marketplace – the owner of webuyanycar.com – has become the third company in two weeks to cancel its IPO, saying volatility in global equity markets has put it off. The news follows much-publicised shelvings of IPOs by challenger banks Aldermore and Virgin Money, [...]
Medibank Private IPO: Australian ministers aim to raise up to £3bn in healthcare listing October 20, 2014 The Australian government is set to reap a A$5.5bn (£3bn) windfall after unveiling plans to sell its stake in Australia’s largest private health insurer Medibank Private. Ministers, who will sell shares to retail investors in the initial public offering, intend to offload the government’s entire stake in the insurance business. Shares were yesterday priced at [...]
C4X Discovery IPO: Healthcare firm set to debut £31m City listing October 20, 2014 University of Manchester spin-out C4X Discovery will this morning announce its intention to raise £11m through listing nearly 36 per cent of the business on London’s Alternative Investment Market on Thursday. The float will give the Manchester-based business, which develops technologies to improve the discovery process for small molecule drugs for diabetes and substance [...]
Virgin Money delays IPO until market conditions improve October 17, 2014 Virgin Money has pushed back its IPO indefinitely, saying it will now go public “as soon as constructive market conditions allow”. The challenger bank had announced it would list on the London Stock Exchange this month, and was expecting to raise gross proceeds of £150m. Virgin planned to issue 25 per cent of its [...]
EE IPO talks back on as Orange and Deutsche Telekom consider options for £12bn disposal October 16, 2014 The owners of EE, the UK’s largest mobile network company, are believed to be back in talks for either a float or sale of the business that could value it at up to £12bn. Orange and Deutsche Telekom, which each own half of EE, were considering strategic options for the business last year before deciding [...]
Entu fully booked for IPO: “We’re very profitable and we’ve got a lot of cash” – CEO Ian Blackhurst October 16, 2014 Good companies find backers even in soured markets Energy efficiency and home improvement group Entu is set to float on London’s Alternative Investment Market later this month in a rare fully subscribed debut, valuing the business at £65.6m. Entu, which emerged out of the common ownership of three holding companies HI Sales, JWD [...]
Aldermore IPO flops as market flattens but Virgin Money pushes ahead with flotation plans October 15, 2014 Aldermore's advisers approached investors with a cut-price offer in a last- ditch bid to save the challenger bank’s stock market float, but failed to pick up enough sales, City A.M. understands. The firm pulled its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday, blaming “the recent deterioration of global equity markets”. The bank approached the IPO [...]
Aldermore IPO cancelled: Sadly, we got it right – Editor’s Letter October 15, 2014 After days of fending off suggestions that its £800m flotation was in trouble, the challenger small business bank Aldermore finally succumbed to the inevitable yesterday. The decision to call off the Initial Public Offering (IPO) is a pity for Aldermore and for the market as a whole. London’s IPO market performed tremendously well during the [...]
As the Aldermore flotation falls through, is the IPO market showing signs of collapse? October 15, 2014 John West, equity capital markets editor at Dealreporter, says Yes. Institutional investors started 2014 hungry for European initial public offerings (IPOs) – even at full valuations. Not any more. Yesterday, the VDAX-NEW volatility index hit a two-year high above 26 – well outside the 15-20 sweet spot in which bankers ideally place new stock. IPOs [...]