Danish firm Netcompany soars on first day of trading

Bloomberg

A Danish tech company that went public quickly soared far above the price that initial investors agreed to pay for the stock.
Netcompany A/S, which says it wants to be a key player in helping northern Europe go digital, sold shares in an initial public offering for 155 kroner a piece, according to a pre-market announcement.
When trading started, the Copenhagen-based firm shot up 25 percent, leaving it with a market value of more than $1.5 billion.
It’s a “very impressive start,” said Per Hansen, an investment economist at Nordnet AB. He says Netcompany “seems to be able to have its cake and eat it, too, in the sense that it has both high growth rates and high profitability.”
The target price had initially been set as low as 135 kroner, with 165 kroner seen as the upper end of the range. Danske Bank A/S, Deutsche Bank AG, and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. SEB AB was joint bookrunner.
“Danish IPOs have had mixed success recently but that hasn’t had any negative effect on Netcompany,’’ Hansen said by phone.
“Investors have looked at Netcompany and seen a unique case and have not been affected by somewhat meager returns on recent IPOs in Denmark.”
In 2016, Nets A/S went public at 150 kroner a share, but fell in subsequent months to around 110 kroner until takeover speculation boosted its price again. Nets, a Nordic payments company, has since been bought out by US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.