London gets its first Europe IPO this year with Trustpilot

London

TRUSTPILOT, a Denmark-based online platform for consumer reviews, plans an initial public offering (IPO) in London, boosting the city's image as a hotspot for listings in Europe.

At least 25 per cent of its shares will be available for trading and the company expects to be eligible for FTSE UK indexes, it said in a statement on Monday. The IPO would raise about US$50 million to fund growth and repay debt, and allow existing shareholders to sell shares.

Trustpilot is seeking a valuation of around £1 billion (S$1.85 billion) in the IPO, said two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Trustpilot, which is based in Copenhagen, would rank as the first large company from the European Union (EU) to tap the London stock market this year, showing that the city is still attractive to foreign listings after Brexit.

The United Kingdom left the EU without an agreement about financial services regulation, causing stock volumes to shift to exchanges on the continent. However, London's deep pool of capital continues to be a big draw for companies looking to go public.

Trustpilot considered other venues, but "on balance, London was the natural choice", chief executive officer Peter Holten Muhlmann said. "There's a really strong emerging tech scene in the City, it has a lot of liquidity and it's one of the more important markets for us; we are a very well-known brand in the UK and the IPO will help us further accelerate that position."

The UK IPO market is off to its strongest start since 2008, with the likes of bootmaker Dr Martens listing in London, while food-delivery startup Deliveroo is expected to lay out plans for an IPO in the coming weeks. The city also continues to attract foreign issuers from further out: Fix Price, Russia's biggest dollar-store retailer, said on Monday it was seeking to raise as much as US$1.9 billion in an IPO.

Trustpilot is one of several firms trying to cash in on an acceleration in online shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic. Poland's InPost SA, which operates automated parcel lockers for deliveries, listed in Amsterdam late January, while online greeting-card and gifting platform Moonpig Group listed in London last month.

Trustpilot had hosted 120 million reviews by the end of 2020. It makes money by selling subscriptions to businesses, which can use consumer reviews in their marketing materials and directly engage with customers on the platform. BLOOMBERG