British personal computer maker Raspberry Pi shares jumped on its first day as a public company, offering a boost to London’s struggling market for new stock listings.
Raspberry Pi shares traded at 360 pence each at 10:35 a.m. in London, well above its initial public offering price of 280 pence. The stock gained as much as 40% from the pricing of its £166 million ($211 million) IPO, before paring gains.
The small deal offers a glimmer of hope for the London market, which has struggled in recent years to attract technology companies to list. It’s the first tech firm that raised $100 million or more in London since video-game maker Devolver Digital Inc. went public in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Raspberry Pi IPO provided “a much needed quality injection into the UK capital markets, and hopefully this proves to be a catalyst for future listings of innovative British businesses domestically,” said Adam Montanaro, a fund manager at Montanaro Asset Management who bought into the offering.
The company, which makes low-cost computers popular among hobbyists and educators, had a market capitalization of about £542 million. Its IPO was oversubscribed by multiple times and the pricing came at the top end of a marketed range, suggesting strong demand for its shares.
The new listing is the biggest in London since cross-border payments firm Cab Payments Holdings Plc floated in July 2023. The city has fallen behind in this year’s IPO revival, with the UK exchange accounting for about 2% of about $13 billion raised in IPOs in Europe this year.
A Raspberry Pi single board computer
The London Stock Exchange was dealt a blow last year when British chip designer Arm Holdings Plc decided to sell shares in New York. It’s also losing tech listings at a faster pace, with cybersecurity firm Darktrace Plc agreeing to be sold to private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Raspberry Pi could offer a boost to sentiment toward the UK tech scene, but given the small IPO size and limited free float, “it unfortunately does not leave too much room for excitement,” said Ben Barringer, an analyst at Quilter Cheviot.
“There is a long way to go before the UK can be seen to be recovering, but hopefully this IPO helps to encourage other tech founders to consider this route to market,” he said in an email.
Raspberry Pi was previously reported to be considering a listing in early 2022. Since then, it raised money from British chipmaker Arm and Sony Group Corp.’s semiconductor division.
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