Shares in Rosebank Industries PLC blossomed on in their first day of trading on AIM in London on Thursday.

The stock was up 74% from its initial public offer price to 434.00p.

Rosebank is run by founders and former senior managers of Melrose Industries PLC and will follow a similar strategy of buying and improving industrial companies.

Melrose itself became a pure-play aerospace firm earlier this year. The Birmingham-based company now is centred around the aerospace businesses of GKN, which Melrose acquired in a hostile takeover back in 2018. The automotive and industrial engineering parts of Melrose and GKN were spun off last year as Dowlais Group PLC.

Rosebank raised £50 million in its IPO, placing 20.0 million new shares at 250 pence each. The amount raised also was Rosebank’s starting market capitalisation. Thursday’s share rise increased that to £86.8 million.

Rosebank aims to buy industrial businesses with an indicative enterprise value of up to around $3 billion and whose performance may be improved.

‘Rosebank’s objective is to recreate the same successful ’buy, improve, sell’ business model which the Rosebank team successfully implemented during their time at Melrose, creating over £6 billion of shareholder value,’ the company explained.

Rosebank is co-founded by Simon Peckham, who was a co-founder of Melrose in 2003 and left the role of Melrose chief executive officer earlier this year. He had been CEO of the FTSE 100 listing since 2012 and now is CEO of Rosebank.

The other Rosebank co-founder is Christopher Miller, another Melrose co-founder, while the third co-founder of Melrose, David Roper, is not involved in Rosebank.

Rosebank also has four other Melrose alumni in its senior management team, including Rosebank Finance Director Matthew Richards.

In a further connection to Melrose, Rosebank is chaired by Justin Dowley, who also is the current chair of Melrose. Dowley additionally is chair of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.