Bridgepoint shares rally on LSE flotation

Shares in private equity firm Bridgepoint Group rallied more than 20% early on Wednesday after pricing its initial public offering at 350.0p.

Bridgepoint's 350.0p price tag gave the firm an initial market capitalisation of £2.88bn.

The new listed group, which focuses on deals of as much as €1.0bn, manages roughly €27.4bn over a variety of private equity and debt funds and was formed in 2000 following a management buyout of UK retail and commercial bank NatWest's private equity wing.

Bridgepoint issued £85.7m new ordinary shares as part of an effort to raise approximately £300.0m, which it intends to utilise for fund investment, to assess potential acquisitions and cut down debt.

Existing shareholders also sold a further 139.7m existing shares, taking the size of Bridgepoint's initial offering to £789.0m and setting its free-float at approximately 27%. However, this will increase to roughly 31.5% if an over-allotment option is exercised in full.

As of 1030 BST, Bridgepoint shares were up 24.36% at 435.25p.