Finablr makes London stock market debut at reduced price

Shares sold at revised offer price of 175 pence each, amid market volatility

Promoth Manghat, group chief executive of Finablr has stepped down amid the ongoing crisis for the payments firm. Ravindranath K / The National

Finablr, the UAE-based holding company for brands including Travelex, UAE Exchange and Xpress Money, started trading on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, after completing an initial public offering that values the firm at $1.6 billion.

The holding company, which was established last April by UAE Exchange founder, Indian-born businessman BR Shetty, started trading at 8am UK time on Wednesday May 15 under the ticker ‘Fin’.

“We are delighted that Finablr has joined the London Stock Exchange’s main market with a premium listing, providing a new platform from which to grow over the coming years,” said Finablr’s group chief executive, Promoth Manghat.

“The group has built on the strength of our technology platform to provide best-in-class payments experiences to consumers and businesses, and we are very well positioned to capture the future opportunities.”

Shares were sold at a revised offer price of 175 pence per share, below the 210 to 260 pence range previously indicated, amid recent market volatility. Global stock markets tumbled on Monday, as the trade dispute between the US and China intensified, and regional stock markets also took a hit.

Finablr expected to close its books for the IPO that day, but the plans were delayed while markets remained volatile.

Finablr had been seeking to raise $200 million from the sale of new stock ahead of the London listing. Brands under the holding company together handled more than 150 million transactions or $114.5bn in volumes as of December 2018, it has said previously. The group served more than 23 million retail customers and 500 corporate clients across 170 countries.

Finablr’s IPO offer comprised 87.7 million new shares issued by the company to raise gross proceeds of £153m, and 87.3 million shares being sold by the selling shareholders equating to a total offer size of £306m, or 25 per cent of Finablr’s issued share capital, the group said in a statement.

In addition, a further 17.5 million shares in the company are being made available by shareholders through an ‘over-allotment’ option, which, if exercised in full, would increase the number of shares in public hands to 192.5 million, or 27.5 per cent of Finablr’s issued share capital.

Immediately after admission to the stock exchange, the company’s issued share capital stood at 700 million shares.

JPMorgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs acted as global coordinators for Finablr’s IPO. Bookrunners included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, EFG Hermes and Numis. Evercore acted as financial adviser.

The listing is the “beginning of an exciting new era to support the company’s growth and development”, Mr Shetty said. He is also the founder of NMC Health, which raised around £117 million (Dh562m) in an IPO in 2012 on the LSE, where it now trades and is part of the benchmark FTSE 100 Index.

Finablr’s revised IPO offer comes the week after a disappointing stock market entrance for ride-hailing company Uber Technologies, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange.

Uber began trading as a public company at $42 per share last Friday, nearly 7 per cent below its IPO price, and its stock fell almost 11 per cent on Monday, the second day of trading, before rebounding a little on Tuesday.