Skrill, the digital payments operator, yesterday postponed its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), blaming ‘adverse IPO market conditions’.
The company, which runs the Moneybookers’ payments service, had announced back in February its intention to raise £160 mn ($260 mn).
‘The Skrill management team remains convinced of the excellent fundamentals of its business: high growth, high margins and strong growth prospects,’ says the company in a short statement to the LSE.
The company’s bookrunners cut the amount of money to be raised to £110 mn at the last minute to try to force through the deal, but there still wasn’t enough investor interest, according to media reports.
Skrill’s shelved IPO is the latest setback for the London market, which last Friday saw Edwards Group fail to get away its own £350 mn float. Meanwhile, Perform Group, which did manage to float last week, has seen its shares fall sharply.
‘Early responses to the IPO were positive – it was a rare opportunity to invest in European internet,’ one source close to Skrill tells the Daily Telegraph.
‘But then the IPO was hit by the perfect storm: Edwards was pulled, Perform traded badly, and all of that against the backdrop of unrest in the Middle East and the troubles following the tsunami in Japan. This wasn’t about the company; it was all about the timing.’
