TheTrainline.com’s new KKR deal postpones debut for IPOs – Inside Track
KKR’s decision to buy up TheTrainline.com robs the financial markets in London of their first opportunity to test the new issues market in 2015.
Last year was a mixed one for flotations, with London seeing more business than since the financial crash. But there were still doubts about the market’s robustness.
Though new issues as a whole generated a pretty decent return, there were some well-publicised problems with individual flotations, such as Saga and Intelligent Energy, which dented sentiment.
Some institutional shareholders have grown tired of new issues and will need convincing to throw resources back into the area.
A TheTrainline.com initial public offering (IPO) would have given a feel for how much demand there is for such transactions. Now we’ll all have to wait for the floats of John Laing and HSS, the tool hire specialist, before getting a better idea of how the IPO markets are going to fare in 2015.