Yahoo Finance ‘Pigs do fly': Moonpig shares soar after £1.2bn stock market debut
Online greeting card retailer Moonpig (MOON.L) saw its shares surge 25% Tuesday morning as it made its stock market debut on the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) in a move that valued the company at £1.2bn ($1.6bn).
The company set its share price at 350p. Shares were at around 440p shortly after they debuted on the exchange, as conditional dealings kicked off.
Unconditional trading will begin on 5 February.
Moonpig, backed by Exponent Private Equity Partners, which owns a 41.3% stake, is eyeing a place in London’s FTSE 250 (^FTMC) Index.
CEO Nickyl Raithatha said: “Listing on the London Stock Exchange is an incredibly special milestone and will provide new opportunities for the business.
“As the leaders of a market undergoing an accelerating shift to online, now is the perfect time for us to bring the company to the public market, and we are excited about Moonpig’s prospects for the future,” he added.
The float is made up of about 5.7 million new shares issued to raise gross proceeds of £20m, and approximately 134.6 million existing shares being sold, equating to a total offer size of £491m and representing 41% of Moonpig’s issued share capital.
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Moonpig has about 12 million customers and sends 45 million cards a year. In the year to April 2020, it made £44m worth of profit on the back of sales of £173m in sales.
Companies are looking to make the most of stock market optimism amid a global effort to rollout COVID-19 vaccines. Dr Martens (DOCS.L) launched on the stock market last week with a £3.7bn valuation.
“Apparently pigs do fly, well Moonpig did at least, with the greetings card website following on from Dr Martens’ big step forward on market debut to trade significantly higher after this morning’s float,” noted AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Food delivery company Deliveroo is also gearing up for a blockbuster stock exchange listing. It was recently valued at $7bn following a new funding round.
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