The bet made by Worldpay in rejecting a rival's takeover bid and opting for an initial public offering looks close to paying off after the payments processor attracted enough investor orders to narrow the price range of its listing.
Worldpay's US private equity owners – Advent International and Bain Capital – shaved 10p off the top and bottom of the price range for Worldpay shares to 235p-250p.
In what is shaping up to be the UK’s biggest IPO for two years, Worldpay has shrugged off the volatile market conditions by collecting enough orders from investors to more than cover the number of shares it aims to sell four times over.
The fast-growing company, which handles 31 million payments every day via cards, mobile devices and the internet, aims to sell close to £1.7 billion (€2.3 billion) of shares, including the overallotment option.
People close to Worldpay said it was confident of achieving a market capitalisation of about £4.9 billion (€6.6 billion) when it floats later this month.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)
