Shawbrook’s private equity owner eyes another £3bn IPO
The private equity owner of specialist lender Shawbrook is eyeing another blockbuster listing for one of its portfolio companies, fresh reports have suggested.
Pollen Street Capital is understood to be laying the groundwork for an IPO for its UK insurer Markerstudy with conversations underway with investment bankers over a listing that could value the firm at over £3bn.
In 2024, Markerstudy – which boasts around six million customers – netted £694m in revenue but made a loss of £141.7m. The company maintains over 6,589 members of staff and was established in 2001.
Last year, the group acquired Atlanta Insurance, expanding its distribution division, which provides motor, home, small business and pet insurance in partnership with top British brands.
Pollen Street declined to comment.
Markerstudy’s brands include Purely Pets, Swinton Insurance and Lancaster Insurance.
Shawbrook hands City a boost
The fresh listing chatter, as reported by Bloomberg, spikes hopes the private equity giant might provide another boost to the City after the IPO of Shawbrook Bank, which Pollen Street snapped up in 2017 for £868m.
Shawbrook kicked off its London Stock Exchange float targeting a valuation just shy of £2bn with a listing price of 370p.
The lender had been eyeing £50m from the listing, alongside a sale of £348m of existing shares by Marlin Bidco Ltd – a company jointly owned by Shawbrook’s private equity overheads Pollen Street Capital and BC Partners LLP.
Marlin acquired Shawbrook for £825m in 2017.
The IPO was offered to qualified institutional buyers internationally and to retail investors resident in the United Kingdom through a partner network with Retailbook.
The firm gave a snapshot of its quarter three performance earlier this month, revealing its loan book swelled to £18.3bn as of the end of September 2025, up from £17bn at the end of the second quarter.
This growth was fuelled by approximately £1.5bn in organic originations and the acquisition of the Thincats group.
Shawbrook has said its medium-term target is to achieve loan book growth in the low double digits per annum, with ambitions to near double the size of its total loan book to £30bn by 2030.