Aston Martin stutters on stock market debut as shares fall
Luxury car maker Aston Martin has had a slow start to its life as a listed company as shares dipped as low as £17.75 this morning after debuting at £19 a share.
It original listing valued the firm at around £4.33bn, falling short of the £5.1bn Aston Martin aimed to reach when it set out an initial pricing range of £17.50 to £22.50 a share.
Shares are now trading around £18.15.
The IPO will hand around £1.1bn to existing shareholders like Italian Investindustrial and Kuwaiti funds Adeem Investments and Primewagon when it starts trading shares later on today.
Aston Martin sold around 25 per cent of its stock, with the offer open to institutional investors, company staff, customers and members of the Aston Martin Owners Club in the UK.
Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler will keep its 4.9 per cent stake in the company.
Aston Martin may fall short of a place in the FTSE 100 when the index is reshuffled in December. The smallest company to feature on the list at the moment has a market cap of £4.7bn.
Before the market opened, chief executive Andy Palmer said:
Today's listing on the London Stock Exchange represents a historic milestone for Aston Martin Lagonda.
We are delighted by the positive response we have received from investors across the world and are very pleased to welcome our new shareholders to the register. We are excited about the momentum across the company and are fully focused on continuing to deliver our exciting growth strategy through the Second Century Plan.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said the strike price may be "a disappointment for the owners".
"it’s a long way short of the £22.50 talked about previously as the top of the range," he added.
"But this is a fairer valuation when you compare with peers – notably Ferrari – and therefore this price could offer an in for longer term investors that the higher valuation would not have afforded."
Read more: Aston Martin narrows IPO price range