London's main market is to welcome another minnow listing at the end of the week, with Italy-based regulation fintech RegTech Open Project PLC set for a direct listing just over a week after appointing its chief executive.
Also known as an introduction, a direct listing means the company will float without raising any new cash and that no underwriting banks are involved.
RTOP, which will have a £60 million debut valuation when it arrives on Friday, specialises in regulatory technology and compliance, with a cloud-based platform that helps its financial services companies and banks keep track of their compliance with regulations and standards.
Currently, its Orbit platform has 19 customers, it says, including 25 regulated banks and financial institutions, of which four are "significant" Italian-headquartered banks and others are in the insurance, manufacturing, public administration and telecommunications sectors in Europe, the Middle East and South America.
It was founded by Alessandro Zamboni, who is also chief executive of Supply@ME Capital PLC (LSE:SYME). Zamboni is a non-executive director of RTOP.
Chief executive Ian Halliday-Pegg was appointed just last week, on 16 August, and announced the role today on his LinkedIn page: "I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Chief Executive Officer at RegTech Open Project".
Until his appointment, he was working as a "freelance executive advisor, with clients in cybersecurity and third-party risk management" and before that he was chief commercial officer at software company Regnology and before that managing director for EMEA at Galvanize, now called Diligent.
Listing in London will provide it access to capital and increase UK exposure as part of its growth strategy, RTOP said, following the transfer of all of RegTech Italy's entire business and assets into a new London-registered parent company.
The current owners are The AvantGarde Group SpA (TAG), which owns 100% but is floating a 35% portion of the company, just under 21 million shares, in London.