New | Worldpay valued at £4.8 billion in London's biggest listing this year
IPO for the payments processor is largest of this year on the London exchange
British payments processor Worldpay listed on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday in an initial public offering valuing the company at £4.8 billion (HK$56.6 billion), the biggest flotation in London this year.
Shares in Worldpay were trading at 255 pence in early trade, above the 240 pence offer price. One source said demand outstripped the number of shares on sale by six to seven times.
Worldpay's private-equity owners Advent International and Bain Capital rejected an offer of up to £6.6 billion, including debt, earlier this year from French rival Ingenico, a source said at that time.
Including debt, the initial public offering values Worldpay at £6.3 billion.
Advent International and Bain bought Worldpay from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010 for about £2 billion. The business provides platforms to allow merchants to accept payments by cards and other methods.
Worldpay processes 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions every day and has about 4,500 staff, mostly in Britain and the United States.