Investors jumped on DNA-sequencing company Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) early on Thursday as its hotly-anticipated stock market debut went off with a bang.
A favourite with one-time star fund manager Neil Woodford, Oxford Nanopore saw its share price surge nearly 45% in early trading to hit 616p in one of the UK’s best-ever market debuts. That values the business at close on £5 billion.
The IPO, or initial public offering, had valued Oxford Nanopore at £3.4 billion, ranking the launch among the best on record for an IPO of its size on the London Stock Exchange, on track to beat clothing retailer Boohoo’s (BOO:AIM) 40% jump by the end of its opening session in March 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
EXCITING TIME FOR HIGH-GROWTH LONDON
The listing marks a significant move for the London Stock Exchange as most UK pharma and life science companies have tended in the past to pick New York’s Nasdaq for public listings. That offers further evidence that London can attract high-growth companies, joining the likes of Deliveroo (ROO), Trustpilot (TRST), Darktrace (DARK), Wise (WISE) and Auction Technology (ATG).
Some of the most exciting fintech firms, including Klarna, Revolut and Monzo, are also believed to be looking at London listing later this year.
‘We are living on the cusp of the genomic era,’ Oxford Nanopore chief executive Gordon Sanghera said in a statement. ‘Our focus remains on continuing to innovate, grow, and working towards our goal of enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere.’
The Oxford University spin-off specialises in DNA-sequencing and provides rapid Covid-19 testing to the NHS.
