An employee sits on a pane of glass with the logo of the London Stock Exchange Group Plc in their office in London, UK on Thursday January 2, 2020.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg via Getty Images
LONDON – Canadian chip designer Alphawave IP’s shares fell as much as 19% on the company’s debut on the London Stock Exchange Thursday morning.
Alphawave and its shareholders sold £ 856 million (US $ 1.2 billion) of shares at £ 4.10 per share for a market value of £ 3.1 billion. The company sold new shares valued at £ 360 million and existing shareholders sold shares valued at approximately £ 496 million. Approximately 28% of the business was publicly traded.
However, within a few hours of trading, the share price fell to £ 3.28, reducing market capitalization by more than £ 500m. Shares rebounded slightly, trading at £ 3.33 at 9am London time.
The IPO comes as stock markets worldwide take a hit and the pan-European Stoxx 600 falls over 1.3% early in the day of trading. European markets followed the negative trend in the Asia-Pacific region overnight and in the US on Wednesday after the latest US inflation data for April showed higher-than-expected price pressures.
Alphawave was founded in Toronto and announced it would be listed on the London Stock Exchange last month. He avoids New York’s tech-oriented Nasdaq.
John Lofton Holt, Alphawave IP’s executive chairman, said in a statement that the company is proud to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
“London was the obvious place to list our silicon IP business as both the industry and the business model were born in the UK.”
He added, “We are delighted to have successfully completed our IPO plans ahead of schedule and backed by a strong UK investor base, along with a distinguished list of blue chip investors in the US, Canada and Europe. Today is just that Beginning of our journey. “
Other companies listed on the London Stock Exchange this year include grocery shipping company Deliveroo, cybersecurity start-up Darktrace, shoemaker Dr. Martens, the digital greeting card seller Moonpig and the consumer reviews website Trustpilot.
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