Funding Circle has set the share offer price at the low end of the range, according to a note published by the company.
Previously, Funding Circle had announced it would offer up to 136,039,416 shares at a price between 420 pence to 530 pence per share. Today, the peer to peer lending has announced a price of 440 pence per Share.
The share offer entails 68,181,818 new shares and 31,953,668 existing shares, representing 29.3% (100,135,486) of Funding Circle’s issued shares, excluding the over-allotment option. The existing share sale represents some of the earlier shareholders including Funding Circle founders who will still retain significant ownership in the Fintech.
The share sale values Funding Circle at £1,595 million (USD $2.075 billion).
The over allotment option is for an additional 10% of the share amount representing proceeds of £44 million – if executed.
Samir Desai, CEO and co-founder of Funding Circle, commented on the successful share sale:
“We have always believed Funding Circle would be well-suited to the public markets and today’s milestone is recognition of the strength and global impact of our model. We look forward to starting this exciting new chapter for the business as we focus on growth across all markets and seek to create a better financial world for small businesses and investors. I am pleased to welcome our new shareholders and I would like to thank my fellow Circlers for all their hard work since we launched. Funding Circle is a very ambitious company and we are excited to continue growing our business over the coming years. The UK is a great place to start and grow a FinTech business and we are proud of today’s accomplishment.”
The Funding Circle initial public offering (IPO) is a bell weather event for the UK peer to peer lending industry. In many respects, the online lending was born in the UK. Funding Circle, an SME focused credit provider, is the largest P2P lender in the UK. The Fintech has operations in the US, Germany and the Netherlands, but there are expectations the platform may expand into other countries at some point in the future.
One Funding Circle executive recently told CI:
“In time we plan to expand into other markets, as small businesses are underserved and fighting against a structural credit gap around the world.”
Other UK based online lenders will be watching this IPO closely as it may represent a similar path for some of the more established P2P lenders.
Shares in Funding Circle will trade on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol FCH with conditional trading commencing today (September 28th) and unconditional trading on October 3rd.
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