By Abhinav Ramnarayan
LONDON (Reuters) - British smart meter company Calisen (L:CLSN) gained 4% on its stock market debut on Friday, providing encouragement for other companies eyeing a London listing after a bruising 2019.
The company priced its initial public offering (IPO) at £328.8 million and placed 145.55 million shares at 240 pence per share, setting its market capitalisation at 1.32 billion pounds.
In the process, it became the first British company to complete a listing on the main London Stock Exchange since Trainline (L:TRNT) in June last year.
Calisen shares rose to 250 pence in early trade and by 1217 GMT were at 249.3 pence, up 3.9%.
The successful completion of the deal and positive aftermarket should provide encouragement for other IPO hopefuls, bankers said.
"This IPO was a test case for sentiment towards the UK post-election and ahead of the Brexit deal negotiations," said a source close to the transaction.
"I would say that the result is an encouraging one and you could see a few more London listings in the coming weeks."
European IPO volumes hit their lowest level in seven years in 2019 and the London market for new listings had a particularly dire time of it in the second half on the back of Brexit uncertainty and Britain's December general election.
IPO DROUGHT
No British company attempted an IPO after the summer and China's SDIC Power, Indian special effects business DNEG and Kazakh finance company Kaspi.kz all made high-profile cancellations after announcing deals.
Overall, the number of London IPOs halved in 2019, with deals worth the equivalent of only $4.82 billion getting over the line, compared with $9.73 billion in 2018 and $7.54 billion in 2017, Refinitiv data shows.
"The pipeline isn't huge, but there are some deals and I expect a few of them to look at the pre-Easter window," said a second source close to the Calisen IPO.
South African bank Investec has already filed a registration document for the London listing of its asset-management arm, Ninety One. Others expected to consider a London IPO include Nigerian payments business Interswitch.
Calisen's offer comprised 125 million new shares to raise gross proceeds of about 300 million pounds, with the rest being sold by existing shareholders.
Credit Suisse (S:CSGN), KKR Capital Markets, Citi (N:C) and HSBC (L:HSBA) were joint global coordinators.
($1 = 0.7733 pounds)