Corporate hedger, Alpha FX Group plc has announced the live trading of its shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which begun earlier today at 8:00 local time under the ticker AFX, according to an LSE filing.
Today marks the first day of public share trading for the UK-based FX service provider, which manages Exchange rate risk for domestic corporates. The group caters to a wide range of clients, including medium sized corporates that deal with currency conversion, international commerce, and payrolls.
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More specifically, Alpha FX will be placing a total of 15,306,123 ordinary shares to raise $37.3 million (£30 million) gross proceeds. The initial public offering (IPO) also resulted in an over-subscribed placing, perhaps showing signs of an improved market for IPO activity in 2017 – the year prior was one of the worst in the past few years, resulting in a dearth of new listings on the LSE and other global exchanges.
Alpha FX also saw a placing price of 196 pence per share, boasting a market capitalization of $79.8 million (£64.2 million) at the onset of its trading. Fiscally speaking, the company has been seeing strong revenue growth since 2014, including an annualized growth rate of 69.2 percent. Profits have also swelled from $1.78 million (£1.43 million) in 2014 to $5.37 million (£4.31 million) in 2016.
Morgan Tillbrook
According to Morgan Tillbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha in a statement on the IPO, "Joining AIM today marks an important milestone for Alpha and we are delighted with the interest we have received and the quality of the institutions that have invested. The success that we have achieved to date is evidence of the strength of our proposition and the quality of our team and culture.”
“The new funds raised will enable us to continue enhancing our service delivery and allow for a greater volume of FX trades, as well as providing us with further working capital in order to scale the business. There are exciting times ahead and we would like to thank our clients, employees and new shareholders for supporting us during this transformational period,” he added.
