Chipmaker Raspberry Pi is set to raise £166m through its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange in a boost for the capital’s struggling bourse.
In an announcement this morning, Raspberry Pi confirmed that its shares had been priced at 280p – right at the top of end of its pricing range – giving the company a market capitalisation of around £541.6m.
The firm’s majority shareholder offloaded 45.9m shares while a further 2.1m shares were sold by other shareholders. Another 11.2m shares were issued by Raspberry Pi, raising around £31.4m.
In total, the firm raised £166m through the listing, making up around 31 per cent of its share capital.
Conditional dealings will begin today, during which institutional investors can trade the shares before full admission on Friday.
“The quality of the interactions during the marketing process has underlined our belief that London has the right calibre and sophistication of investor to support growing, ambitious technology businesses such as Raspberry Pi,” Eben Upton, chief executive of Raspberry Pi, said.
“The reaction that we have received is a reflection of the world-class team that we have assembled and the strength of the loyal community with whom we have grown,” Upton continued.
“Welcoming new shareholders alongside our existing ones brings with it a great responsibility, and one that we accept willingly, as we continue on our mission to make high-performance, low-cost computing accessible to everyone.”
The float will be a welcome boon to the market after a barren period in which new listings have fallen off a cliff. Just four firms floated in London in the first four months of the year, but the London Stock Exchange is now on the cusp of landing fast-fashion firm Shein as well as Raspberry Pi.
Politicians and regulators have been on a charm offensive ever since Cambridge-based tech firm Arm decided to list in New York. Major reforms to the listings regime are expected to take effect in the summer.