Oxford Nanopore valued at $6.17 billion as shares soar in London debut
Shares of Biotech group Oxford Nanopore Technologies soared more than 30% within minutes of their market debut on Thursday, indicating increased investor interest in life sciences companies listing in London.
The stock was trading at 568 pence by 0730 GMT and the company’s valuation was about 4.51 billion pounds ($6.17 billion). The offer price was 425 pence.
The listing marks a significant move for the London Stock Exchange as most British pharma and life science companies tend to list on New York’s Nasdaq.
The company, which specialises in DNA sequencing and provides rapid COVID-19 tests to Britain’s national health services, sold 524 million pounds worth of shares in the IPO. It set its issue price towards the upper end of an earlier range.
It had planned to issue 82.4 million new shares, raising 350 million pounds, while existing shareholders sold 41 million shares, it said in a statement.
