The words “turn around” on a City broker note analysing first-quarter results at Convatec yesterday were not what investors had expected to read about the medical equipment maker barely 18 months after its £4.4 billion float on the stock exchange.
Initially the listing, London’s biggest in 2016, had looked healthy. Convatec, founded in 1978 as part of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the American drugs company, sells products ranging from advanced wound dressings to continence care products and has been targeting older people with chronic conditions.
The shares hit a record of 344p last June, well above the 225p float price, but investors have been feeling the pain since. Its private equity backers timed their sales exquisitely, with Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners disposing of 250 million