Norwegian software program group Visma has chosen London over Amsterdam for its upcoming preliminary public providing, marking a uncommon victory for the UK’s struggling fairness markets because it fights to stay related for high-growth tech listings.
Folks conversant in the discussions instructed the Monetary Instances that London was finally chosen due to the depth of its capital markets and a bigger pool of buyers centered on UK equities in comparison with these investing completely in Dutch shares.
Learn extra: London closes hole on New York as prime world monetary centre.
The IPO, anticipated early subsequent yr, will take a look at whether or not the UK authorities’s current efforts to revive London’s capital markets are beginning to bear fruit. The itemizing is contingent on implementing long-promised reforms, together with measures that will enable firms listed in euros to be included within the FTSE indices, seen as crucial for attracting European corporations.
Visma, which supplies accounting, payroll and HR software program throughout the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic areas, is valued at round €19bn (£16.2bn/$22.21bn). It’s majority-owned by UK-based personal fairness agency Hg, which first invested within the firm in 2006 and helped take it personal from the Oslo inventory alternate at a roughly $450m valuation.
Hg and its co-investors at present maintain roughly 70% of the corporate. The rest is owned by minority shareholders, together with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and US personal fairness agency TPG.
The choice to listing in London gives a glimmer of hope for the UK’s main markets, which have seen a pointy decline in new IPO exercise.
In 2023, 88 firms both delisted from the London Inventory Alternate’s principal market or shifted their main itemizing elsewhere, primarily to New York. Simply 18 new listings took their place. To this point, in 2025, solely three IPOs have launched within the UK’s main market, elevating lower than £100m in whole, in response to LSE information.
Learn extra: Arm chooses New York for key expertise itemizing in ‘kick within the tooth’ for London
At London Tech Week earlier this month, Bolt chief government Markus Villig solid doubt on the capital’s enchantment. “Let me have a look at the IPOs which have occurred within the UK over the past 5 years,” he stated. “What number of of them are left?”
When British microchip firm Arm determined to drift in New York somewhat than London final yr, specialists known as it a “kick within the tooth” for London.
“It is a blow to the UK authorities and the Metropolis of London submit Brexit as Arm pins its hopes on New York, the place a few of the world’s greatest tech firms have floated together with Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA),” Victoria Scholar, head of funding at Interactive Investor, stated on the time.
