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By Abhinav Ramnarayan
LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - British smart meter company
Calisen gained 4% on its stock market debut on Friday,
providing encouragement for other companies eyeing a London
listing after a bruising 2019.
The company priced its initial public offering (IPO) at
£328.8 million ($425.20 million) and placed 145.55 million
shares at 240 pence per share, setting its market capitalisation
at 1.32 billion pounds.
In the process, it became the first British company to
complete a listing on the main London Stock Exchange since
Trainline in June last year.
Calisen shares rose to 250 pence in early trade and by 1217
GMT were at 249.3 pence, up 3.9%.
The successful completion of the deal and positive
aftermarket should provide encouragement for other IPO hopefuls,
bankers said.
"This IPO was a test case for sentiment towards the UK
post-election and ahead of the Brexit deal negotiations," said a
source close to the transaction.
"I would say that the result is an encouraging one and you
could see a few more London listings in the coming weeks."
European IPO volumes hit their lowest level in seven years
in 2019 and the London market for new listings had a
particularly dire time of it in the second half on the back of
Brexit uncertainty and Britain's December general election.
IPO DROUGHT
No British company attempted an IPO after the summer and
China's SDIC Power, Indian special effects business DNEG and
Kazakh finance company Kaspi.kz all made high-profile
cancellations after announcing deals.
Overall, the number of London IPOs halved in 2019, with
deals worth the equivalent of only $4.82 billion getting over
the line, compared with $9.73 billion in 2018 and $7.54 billion
in 2017, Refinitiv data shows.
"The pipeline isn't huge, but there are some deals and I
expect a few of them to look at the pre-Easter window," said a
second source close to the Calisen IPO.
South African bank Investec has already filed a registration
document for the London listing of its asset-management arm,
Ninety One. Others expected to consider a London IPO include
Nigerian payments business Interswitch.
Calisen's offer comprised 125 million new shares to raise
gross proceeds of about 300 million pounds, with the rest being
sold by existing shareholders.
Credit Suisse, KKR Capital Markets, Citi and
HSBC were joint global coordinators.
($1 = 0.7733 pounds)
(Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan
Editing by David Goodman)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)