UK Set For Record IPO Listings

Britain is on track for a record year for flotations as companies press ahead with initial public offerings (IPOs) despite signs of investor fatigue.

So far this year, 40 companies have raised £5.7bn after the market for new shares went into overdrive following years in the doldrums, figures supplied by Thomson Reuters show.

The total for 2014 so far easily outstrips the previous £4.9bn record for the same period in 2007 and the £2.9bn equivalent in 2006, which went on to be the all-time biggest year for flotations.

At the previous full-year market peak in 2006, 134 companies raised £12.1bn. The total fell to £10.7bn the following year and then plunged to £505m in 2008 as the financial crisis hit its peak.

Year-to-date figures for 2014 do not include Lloyds Banking Group’s flotation of its TSB business. The bank is expected to publish the prospectus for the long-awaited IPO on Monday. The sale was forced on Lloyds by the European Union after the UK government waived competition concerns to let Lloyds rescue HBOS in early 2009.

TSB is expected to be sold below book value in an attempt to entice buyers and the sale of the first tranche of 25% of the shares is likely to value the business at between £1.12 and £1.44bn – between 0.7 and 0.9 times its book value.

via The Guardian

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