LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - CAB Payments Holdings, a specialist in business-to-business cross-border payments across emerging markets, is seeking a London stock market listing to broaden its ownership and accelerate its growth, the company said on Thursday.
The offer is expected to comprise a secondary sell-down of existing ordinary shares by Merlin Midco Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Helios Investors III L.P, Helios Investors III A L.P and certain other investors, CAB said.
The announcement comes a day after We Soda, a natural soda ash producer, said it had received "considerable" interest from investors and confirmed it was also seeking a London listing.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said CAB's listing plan was another boost for London after several high-profile companies appeared to shun the city for a New York listing.
"After the drought of IPOs in the capital, the taps are now being slowly turned on and the flotation tank is starting to fill, but don't expect the trickle to turn into a flood just yet," she said.
Reuters reported in March that Helios had engaged Barclays Plc and JPMorgan & Co to explore strategic options for CAB, including a private sale and flotation. At the time, sources said the firm could achieve a valuation of between 800 million pounds and 1 billion pounds-plus.
CAB said ordinary shares representing up to a further 15% of the offer were expected to be made available in an over-allotment option.
"Operating as a publicly traded company will help us to continue to pursue our strategy of delivering long-term sustainable growth ...," Bhairav Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer of CAB Payments, said in a statement.
"In turn, this will support us in our mission to connect more people in traditionally hard-to-reach regions with global financial infrastructure, enhancing financial inclusion and strengthening local economies." (Editing by Karin Strohecker Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Barclays (BARC)
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.)