Worldpay wins backing for London's largest float this year
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Version 0 of 1. Advisers to Worldpay, the UK payments processing group chaired by Sir Mike Rake, have said they had secured enough financial support for its flotation to go ahead. The float, which will value the group at about £4.5bn, will be the largest this year in London and will catapult the company into the FTSE 100 where it will rank close to J Sainsbury. The group, owned by private equity firms Advent and Bain, had hoped for a valuation as high as £5.2bn but volatile markets have forced bankers on the deal to consider selling the group more cheaply. Related: Worldpay weighs IPO or Ingenico bid Worldpay, which snubbed a bid from French rival Ingenico because it considered it too risky, has been on an institutional roadshow for just two days. Advisers will be pleased to have secured support so swiftly, given jittery market conditions. Earlier this week the German drugmaker Bayer cut the price range for a public offering of shares in its plastics division by €1bn (£740m), blaming China’s slowing economy and the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Despite volatile markets, a number of UK flotations are being planned after a summer lull. Motor insurer Hastings is seeking to raise nearly £400m in London and Equiniti has just announced plans for a £1bn float. Bankers said the books for Worldpay were “covered,” which means that investors are willing to buy enough shares for the issue to go ahead at a price between 225p and 260p a share. The company said in September that it would seek to raise net proceeds of about £890m to pay down debt. |