SSP employees take a bite out of firm’s £2bn stock market debut
THE OWNER of train station food retailers Millie’s Cookies and Upper Crust is set to give its 30,000 employees a chance to buy a stake in the business.
SSP, which unveiled plans to raise £500m from City investors by listing shares on the stock market, is considering plans to include an employee share ownership scheme in the stock offering.
The listing, which would value SSP at £2bn, is set to be one of the year’s biggest new issues on the London stock market.
Chief executive Kate Swann, the former CEO of WH Smith, yesterday batted away concerns about the increased scepticism of City investors. A number of initial public offerings have tanked this year, taking the shine off new share issues.
“We’ve got a good platform and a clear strategy,” Swann told City PM “We’re going to go and talk about the business and leave it up to the fund managers to make up their minds.”
The firm said it would use the proceeds of the share sale to cut its debt pile, which currently stands at about £1bn but is expected to fall to £450m after the flotation.