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LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) – Spanish fund distribution firm Allfunds marked its stock market debut in Amsterdam on Friday with a jump of more than 10% in its freshly-listed shares.
Allfunds is among the biggest IPOs in Europe this year so far, along with the completed listings of Deliveroo and Vantage Towers, Vodafone’s towers business.
The listing is a big win for Amsterdam, which has emerged as an early beneficiary after Brexit dented London’s spot as the international listing venue of choice for European companies.
At 0715 GMT, Allfunds’ stock was up 12.8% at 12.97 euros on Euronext, having briefly risen above 13 euros. The surge in Allfunds shares came in an otherwise flat market, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index losing 0.1%.
Allfunds had priced its initial public offering (IPO) at 11.50 euros per share, giving the company a valuation of about 7.2 billion euros ($8.7 billion).
It had launched its plans to list earlier this month, saying it aimed to float 25% of its shares on the Dutch bourse.
Although the European IPO market enjoyed its best quarter since 2015 in the first three months of 2021, with $19.55 billion raised, a disappointing debut by Deliveroo in London amplified concerns around whether this momentum can last.
Funds affiliated with private-equity owner Hellman & Friedman, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and lenders Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas are among shareholders who are selling shares as part of the Allfunds IPO. ($1 = 0.8300 euros) (Reporting by Julien Ponthus and Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Alexander Smith)
