IPO market stunned as £1bn float pulled
OMAN’S Renaissance Services was yesterday forced to pull its £1bn London flotation of Topaz Energy after investors failed to show enough appetite for the shares.
The banks were due to price the issue before lunch-time but did not do so after it became clear things were not going as planned.
“Renaissance has a firm sense of what the business is worth and feels that it will get the valuation it wants at some time in the future,” said one banking source.
Topaz, a Dubai-based oilfield services company, was due to raise £311m to fund expansion plans and repay its debt. Advisers expect the group to try a London issue again in the near future once markets have settled.
The Danish group ISS earlier this month pulled its flotation and the French group Lagardere postponed a sale of a 20 per cent stake in Canal Plus.