Europe has outshadowed the US by producing more tech IPOs each year from 2016, claims the new report by Atomico. On an average, Europe has recorded nearly 3.6 tech IPOs each month since 2016 and produced three to five $1B+ tech IPOs each year during this period.
In 2020, the scenario for European IPOs has been impacted due to the current pandemic crisis. While many companies hinted that they wish to float, most of them had to change their decision as there is a global economic slowdown. However, the report notes that 2020 has been average with three $1B+ IPOs as of October this year. Here, UKTN has listed the European tech IPOs of 2020 so far as revealed by Atomico.
Allegro (Poland)
Founder/s: Arjan Bakker, Rajeev Karpe
Founded year: 1999
Funding: NA
Polish e-commerce giant Allegro filed Europe’s largest tech IPO with plans to raise 1B zlotys (nearly £0.2B). However, it raised 9.2B zlotys (nearly £1.7B). Also, it is the largest-ever listing in Warsaw Stock Exchange. Notably, Allegro sold 213.5 million shares at 43 zloty each (nearly £8.75) and raised 1B zlotys (nearly £0.2B) by selling 23.3 million new shares. The rest of the amount comes from its private equity owners Permira, Cinven, and Mid Europa Partners.
THG (UK)
Founder/s: Matthew Moulding, John Gallemore
Founded year: 2004
Funding: £387.5M
Manchester-based THG (The Hut Group) was floated on the London Stock Exchange for £920M, which raised its valuation to £4.5B. The Blackrock, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Henderson Global Investors and funds managed by Merian bought £565M worth shares in THG. Notably, The Hut Group IPO is the biggest IPO of a British company ever since the government floated the shares of Royal Mail in 2013.
Link Mobility (Norway)
Founder/s: Jens Rugseth
Founded year: 1993
Funding: NA
Link Mobility, which provides B2C consumer messaging and mobile services completed its IPO for $650M (nearly £487M). It rose by 19% on the first day of trading in Oslo. Link Mobility raised 2.5B kroner (nearly £0.31B) in the share sale. The rest of the proceeds are given to the existing holders and private equity firm Abry Partners. Besides these, seven cornerstone investors and the Government Pension Fund of Norway took one-third of the offering.
Pexip (Norway)
Founder/s: Giles Chamberlin, Simen Teigre, Tom-Erik Lia
Founded year: 2012
Funding: NA
Pexip, a video communications provider, was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange trading in March this year. It soared by 54% in early trade after the IPO. The shares of Pexip rose to 97 Norwegian crowns (nearly £8.32) and the company reached a valuation of 9.6B Norwegian crowns (nearly £80.93B) after floating.
UnifiedPost (Belgium)
Founder/s: Bart Vermeulen, Hans Leybaert
Founded year: 2001
Funding: £29M
Belgium-based fintech company UnifiedPost debuted trading on Euronext Brussels in September with an initial market capitalisation of €608M (nearly £553M). Notably, Unifiedpost is the second Belgian alumni of TechShare, Euronext’s pre-IPO programme, to go public. It was listed through the admission of trading of 30,401,990 shares for €20 (nearly £18.2) per share.
Exasol (Germany)
Founder/s: Falko Mattasch
Founded year: 2000
Funding: NA
Exasol, a global technology company providing a next-generation software-based data engine, floated its shares for €9.5 (nearly £8.64). The offering comprised 5.1 million newly issued shares from a fund raise and nearly 2 million existing shares from its existing shareholder KfW among others totaling to 9.2 million shares.
Readly (Sweden)
Founder/s: Henrik Barck, Joel Wikell
Founded year: 2013
Funding: £38M
Stockholm-based digital magazines subscription service Readly debuted trading its shares on Nasdaq Stockholm. It announced that on the first day of trading, its raised SEK 450M (nearly £40M). In connection with the IPO, Baker McKenzie’s team consisting of Joakim Falkner, Henric Roth, Olof Larsson, Ian Gulam, Stefan Balazs and Marlene Wiklund acted as legal advisor to Readly and Zouk Capital LLP.
Mercell (Norway)
Founder/s: NA
Founded year: 1999
Funding: NA
Mercell announced the completion of IPO raising NOK 850M (nearly £73M) before getting listed on Merkur Market Stock Exchange. The IPO attracted very strong interest from Norwegian, Nordic and international quality institutional investors including Luxor Capital Group, SWedbank Robur Fonder, Tin Fonder and DNB Asset Management.
fashionette (Germany)
Founder/s: Ronald Reschke, Sebastian Siebert
Founded year: 2008
Funding: £1.37M
fashionette AG, a leading European data-driven online platform for premium and luxury fashion accessories with a focus on the German, Austrian and Swiss region set the offer price for its IPO at €31 (nearly £27.3) per share, in consultation with Hauck & Aufhäuser Privatbankiers Aktiengesellschaft. fashionette intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO primarily to spur growth of the existing business through marketing and customer acquisition initiatives, to pursue selected acquisitions in order to drive regional and category expansion.
The post UKTN roundup: The largest tech IPOs in Europe in 2020 appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
