Funding Circle valued at up to £1.8bn

The peer-to-peer lender’s valuation has been set at £1.4bn-£1.8bn.

The next step in Funding Circle’s landmark IPO is complete. The firm will come to market seeking a maximum valuation of around £1.8bn.

Its price range has been set at 420 to 530 pence per share, with its total issued ordinary share capital expected to comprise between 329,708,334 and 345,053,027 shares. This means the firm will be valued somewhere between £1.38bn and £1.82bn.

Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, via his private holding company Heartland A/S, has agreed to backstop the listing with a purchase order for 10 per cent of the floated shares at a maximum valuation of £1.65bn. Povlsen is a long-term investor in such companies as ASOS and Zalando.

A maximum of 71,428,571 new shares will make up the primary offer, with a secondary sale to follow. Funding Circle is targeting a £300m raise.

The firm must float at least 25 per cent of its shares in order to list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. That 25 per cent will be reached through a combination of the initial float and secondary sale, as we explain in our article on the various lock-in periods that apply to major shareholders.

Funding Circle has also announced that Ms Geeta Gopalan will join the company as a non-executive director, effective 1 November 2018. Gopalan is what you might call a serial NED. She already sits on the boards of such companies as Virgin Money and Wizink Bank S.A, and is the latest in a string of high profile board appointments by the peer-to-peer lender.

Retail investors will be able to invest in the float via the intermediaries offer, with a minimum investment size of £1,000. This will open following the publication of the firm’s prospectus.