Former Lloyds (LON:LLOY) registrars Equiniti failed to fly away when the firm started life today on the London Stock Exchange. The outsourcing business, which manages shareholder registers, payments and admin, started unconditional dealing today, having started conditional trading on Tuesday, with its 300mln shares admitted Friday. Shares were priced at a bottom-of-the-range 165p at its IPO earlier in the week, valuing the company at £495mln. Midway through the day, shares, which began at 158p, were 2% lower to 154p. Equiniti, was sold in May 2007 by Lloyds to Advent International for £550mln in cash netting the bank a £440mln pre-tax profit at that time Since then it has been expanded through a series of further acquisition and Advent has committed to invest £75mln alongside the raise. Some £315mln of cash is expected to be raised for the company via the stock market share sale. The cash is earmarked for debt repayment. The company currently counts 70 of the FTSE 100 constituents among its clients and the group plans to expand into other complementary services.
Equiniti makes rough start to life on the market
Midway through the day, shares, which began at 158p, were 2% lower to 154p.