The early days of a company’s life on the stock market tends to set the tone for what follows. The grief around Funding Circle’s listing began even earlier and has continued to plague it.
Days before trading in shares of the specialist online lender began at the end of September, Funding Circle and its bankers were gunning for a valuation of up to £1.75 billion, only to be forced to narrow the expected range shortly before it came to market, and then to price the shares at the lower level of 440p apiece.
When the shares fell sharply after the IPO — admittedly amid a worldwide sell-off in technology stocks — questions were asked, particularly as the decline continued. The shares were up 5p,