Anti-virus software provider Avast PLC (LON:AVST) saw its shares open lower despite setting its flotation price at the bottom end of the range.
Having indicated that the flotation price would be set somewhere between 250p and 270p, the company and its advisors plumped for 250p, only to see the shares slide to around 241p in early trading.
READ: Avast flotation may not be as vast as previously thought
The company issued 58.98mln new shares in its initial public offering (IPO) while 181.82mln shares held by existing shareholders were also sold, equating in aggregate to 25.3% of the total shares in issue.
The private equity-backed company raised £147.4mln in new capital while existing shareholders cashed in to the tune of £454.3mln.
An additional 36.12mln shares were made available as part of the over-allotment option, raising the possibility of an additional £90.3mln being raised.
Based on the flotation price, the market capitalisation of the company, when dealing commenced this morning was roughly £2.38bn, making it one of the largest ever technology company listings in London; international tech companies usually choose to float in the US and usually on the Nasdaq exchange.
.@lseplc Delighted to welcome leading global #cybersecurity business @avast_antivirus to open London trading this morning to celebrate their #IPO - Europe’s biggest tech IPO so far this year. https://t.co/IzBcknmrlX pic.twitter.com/EdoWaUdCdi
— LondonStockExchange (@LSEplc) May 10, 2018
The current record for the biggest London listing is held by Russian gold company Polyus Gold (LON:PGIL), whose float gave it a £6.3bn market value.
Avast was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis in 1988 and has its software installed on more than 435mln devices.