Financial Times May 23, 2014
EasyHotel, the sister brand of the easyJet budget airline, has announced its intention to float on London’s junior market, despite rising questions over investor appetite for initial public offerings. A shift in sentiment towards London listings was underlined on Friday as Saga confirmed that its shares had priced at the very bottom of an original 185p-245p range, after the insurance-to-cruises group failed to secure enough interest in the offering.
Private equity houses Permira, Charterhouse and CVC scrapped plans to sell any shares in the float at a price they believed “significantly undervalues” the company. In “conditional” trading between City institutions on Friday, Saga shares were up by a penny at 186p, giving the company a market capitalisation of about £2bn.
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