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Applied Nutrition floats with £350 million valuation

written by Bella Palmer
london-ipo

The initial public offering provides a boost for Britain's financial markets, which have fallen behind regional counterparts due to dwindling investor confidence and a lack of listings

Applied Nutrition's shares opened 7% above its IPO price on Thursday, giving the British supplements maker a valuation of £375 million in one of the biggest London IPOs this year.

The initial public offering provides a boost for Britain's financial markets, which have fallen behind regional counterparts due to dwindling investor confidence and a lack of listings.

Investors are discerning and have a high bar, but the market is definitely looking for new firms and the depth of the market is there, according to James Taylor, co-head of Investment banking at sole bookrunner Deutsche Numis.

Founded by scaffolder Thomas Ryder out of Merseyside's Knowsley, Applied Nutrition has previously said four 'prominent and highly successful North West entrepreneurs' would buy £25 million of shares.

Applied Nutrition is backed by British sportswear retailer JD Sports, with founder and CEO Thomas Ryder maintaining a majority shareholding.

But former JD Sports boss Peter Cowgill is also an investor and Andy Bell, founder of broker AJ Bell, became chairman earlier this year.

Applied Nutrition's shares opened at 150 pence on the London Stock Exchange. The company had priced its offering 140 pence per share, at the lower end of a 136-160 pence target range.

The shares, which pulled back from the session high of 151.8 pence, were up 3.6% at 145 pence by 1127 GMT.

It raised £157.5 million by selling 112.5 million shares.

Ryder said: As a homegrown UK business based in Knowsley, Liverpool, we could not be prouder to be listing on the LSE.

We are only scratching the surface of our growth opportunity and this IPO positions us ideally for the next step of our development, he said.

We are confident it will assist in our vision to create the world's most trusted and innovative sports nutrition, health and wellness brand, he said.

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