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Shares in British microcomputer maker Raspberry Pi jumped more than a third in institutional trading on Tuesday after the company priced shares at 280p, implying a market valuation of about £542mn.
The company confirmed an offer price of 280p on Tuesday, at the top end of a range of 260p to 280p. The flotation, which will be open to retail investors from Friday, is a boost to London’s stock market, which has struggled to attract interest from high-growth technology firms, which prefer to list in New York.
Shares jumped 32 per cent in conditional dealing, which is only open to certain institutional shareholders, early on Tuesday, to 370p. Raspberry Pi said its offer price implied a market capitalisation of £541.6mn.
In a statement, chief executive Eben Upton said the marketing process had “underlined our belief that London has the right calibre and sophistication of investor to support growing, ambitious technology businesses”.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “The London Stock Exchange will be pleased to see that it may have a palpable hit on its hands, even if the deal is not particularly big and the free float is relatively limited.”
The total offer size amounts to £166mn, representing about 30.7 per cent of the company’s ordinary shares.
Raspberry Pi said the total offer size would rise to £178.9mn if the overallotment option, in which additional shares would be made available by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is exercised in full, representing about 33 per cent of its shares.
Raspberry Pi began trading in 2012 and has since sold more than 60mn single-board computers and computer modules. It expects to sell 8.4mn units in 2024, up from 7.4mn in 2023, according to a registration document.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity founded in 2008 to promote computer science education for young people, held almost 73 per cent of shares in the computer-maker before the IPO. It said it would remain a shareholder.
The low-cost computer maker said its revenues rose to $265.8mn in 2023, with pre-tax profits almost doubling to $38.2mn, according to filings.
British chip designer Arm has committed to buying $35mn of shares in the IPO, building on the 3.4 per cent stake it took last October, according to a registration document published in May. Lansdowne Partners, another existing shareholder, has committed to purchase up to $20mn.
Other significant shareholders in Raspberry Pi include technology group Sony and the Ezrah Charitable Trust, a US-based private foundation that has also donated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Jefferies International and Peel Hunt were engaged as joint bookrunners for Raspberry Pi.
The listing is a rare victory for the London stock market as British companies have increasingly chosen to go public in the US in order to access deeper capital markets and higher valuations. It comes as ecommerce group Shein is also exploring a flotation in the UK.
SoftBank-backed chipmaker Arm, one of Raspberry Pi’s shareholders, listed in New York for a $52bn valuation last September, while FTSE 100 constituents Flutter and CRH have both in the past year opted to move their primary listings across the Atlantic.
Cyber security company Darktrace — one of the few technology groups listed in London — agreed to a takeover from private equity group Thoma Bravo for £4.3bn in April, two years after it first went public.
https://www.ft.com/content/6419f805-01e8-4900-9da7-7e4fc8504a81
