The Magnum Ice Cream Company (EURONEXT:MICC, LSE:MICC, NYSE:MICC) began trading as a separate company on Monday after its demerger from Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR) was completed over the weekend.
It has been listed on three exchanges: Euronext Amsterdam, the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
TMICC has issued 612,259,739 ordinary shares, with a nominal value of €3.50 apiece. A reference price of €12.80 was given by Euronext at the end of last week, giving the company an expected debut valuation of €7.8 billion.
Shares began trading in London at around 1,110p and rose 1.7% to 1,118.6p by mid-morning, implying a live sterling market cap of £6.85 billion.
The Netherlands has been declared TMICC’s home member state for regulatory purposes under EU law.
Peter ter Kulve, chief executive officer of TMICC, said: “Today is a proud milestone for everyone associated with TMICC. We became the global leader in ice cream as part of the Unilever family. Now, as an independent listed company, we will be more agile, more focused, and more ambitious than ever.”
He added: “We have a clear strategy to deliver growth, improve productivity and reinvest in TMICC in line with the medium-term targets we set out at our recent Capital Markets Day.”
CREST, Euroclear Nederland, and DTC accounts are expected to be credited today, with physical shareholding statements sent by 22 December 2025.
Unilever separately confirmed that, following the completion of the demerger, it will carry out a consolidation of its shares after the close of trading today.
The share consolidation is intended to maintain comparability between Unilever's share price and per share metrics (including earnings per share and dividends per share) before and after the demerger.
Diana Radu, analyst at Morningstar, said the opening valuation was "starkly lower" than earlier estimates of around €15 billion, and it values the company at approximately eight times its expected 2025 adjusted EBITDA.
"Magnum is headquartered in the Netherlands and has its primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam, so unlike Unilever, it does not qualify for inclusion in the FTSE UK index series.
"As a result, UK index-tracking funds that receive Magnum shares in the spin-off but benchmark against FTSE UK indices are required to sell, which creates some short-term downward pressure on the share price after listing."
Still, she said the longer-term outlook is better, as being a standalone company means the ice-cream business "gains a refreshed management team and a more focused, category-specific strategy" for what is the global market leader who owns four of the six most globally recognised brands.
TMICC's new management has identified inefficiencies and is working to correct them, with a strategy targeting top and bottom-line growth over the medium term.
** UPDATE: Adds share price, valuation and analyst comments **