Funding Circle shares fall over 20 per cent on first day of trading
London fintech hopeful Funding Circle took a hammering on its first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange today, falling at one point more than 24 per cent below its initial price target.
Shares in the peer-to-peer lender fell as low as 334.5p in mid-morning trading, down from its listing price of 440p.
Read more: Funding Circle cuts price range for IPO
The firm also fared badly in conditional trading yesterday, where the stock was trading as low as 396p at a 9.8 per cent fall in price.
Funding Circle cut its target price range to between 440p and 460p per share last week, having previously set it at between 420p to 530p. In early test trades last Friday, the firm was valued at £1.5bn.
As of midday on London's main market, Funding Circle's share price was at 380p.
The fintech float comes as Aston Martin also stuttered on its stock market debut today, after shares dipped as low as £17.75 this morning from its initial pricing of £19 per share.
Funding Circle chief executive Samir Desai told Morning Wire last month as it confirmed its intention to float that the business had garnered a lot of interest, but that it wasn't getting its hopes too high.
He said: "We know where we are going in the long term, and we're not naive – we know there will be ups and downs, but as long as we stay focused on the long term we will be happy."
Read more: Aston Martin stutters on stock market debut as shares slip
Rupert Taylor, chief executive of industry analytics firm AltFi Data, told Morning Wire:
"Fintech is already an incredibly diverse sector covering a huge spectrum of different business models. As such, extrapolating the daily share price movements of the most recently floated company is unlikely to deliver meaningful insight.
"However, as a provider of comparable loan performance metrics, AltFi Data would point out that it is impressive that Funding Circle have maintained the impressive performance of the loans they originate even as their lending volumes have grown to the size of a significant market participant. This is a clear sign that they have identified a durable lending model."