- Booming debut for Oxford Nanopore
- Boohoo slides as costs bite
- Aim IPO rejects PE exit route
Oxford Nanopore set to become London’s most successful IPO
Shares in Oxford Nanopore (ONT) have surged almost 50 per cent on their market debut. The initial public offering (IPO) valued the company at £3.4bn but if the surge continues, the company could close its first day trading well over the £4.5bn mark.
Those who have followed coverage of Oxford Nanopore as it has prepared for its IPO shouldn’t be surprised by the hype. We were one of a number of titles to herald the IPO “the true beginning of London’s tech revolution”, while analysts have said that a £4bn valuation is fair for a company whose technology has so much potential. But it’s still a big leap for a company which remains loss making.
Read more: Oxford Nanopore to adopt dual-class share structure
Boohoo warns on profits
Shares in fast fashion retailer Boohoo (BOO) tumbled by up to 10 per cent in early trading after the company revised down its full year profit forecast as costs of investing in the business and increased distribution and wage costs eat into margins. Margins in the first half of the year fell to 8.7 per cent, down from 11 per cent a year ago. Overall sales grew by 20 per cent to £975.9m, which was marginally below expectations while profits dipped by 64 per cent to £24.6m.
Boohoo was previously embroiled in concerns over its supply chain, prompting the company to this week publish a list of 1,100 suppliers. Questions were raised over its ESG credentials after concerns about practices in it supply chain were aired, prompting some fund managers to dump the shares but today Dave Baxter reveals which fund managers have kept the faith with Boohooo despite those worries.
Streaming giants brace for strike
Hollywood ‘crew’ workers who provide essential services on film sets are preparing to strike over a pay dispute, throwing up more trouble for an industry just getting back on its feet after the pandemic. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) says its members want to receive a bigger share of the profits from productions made by streaming giants including Apple, Netflix and Amazon.
The dispute originated with a deal made in 2009 between IATSE and the then-nascent streaming industry which offered companies with fewer than 20m subscribers discounted rates. But streaming companies are no longer small film producers. Netflix had more films nominated for an Oscar this year than any other film studio, Apple TV+ has just won big at the Emmys and Walt Disney Studios is prioritising the release of films on Disney+.
A strike - on which the union plans to vote on Friday - could cause more delays to film production, or add further costs to the streaming giants, where margins are already under pressure from rising competition.
Read more:
ITV vs Google: A tale of two marketing budgets
Why telcos like BT and AT&T are retreating from media
Made Tech launches in anti-PE listing
Made Tech (MTEC), a company that provides digital transformation services to the UK public sector, made its stock market debut on Thursday morning. On admission to trading on AIM the company will have a market cap of £181m. The company has achieved a revenue CAGR of 89 per cent from £1.9m in 2018 to £13.3m for the year ended 31 May 2021.
Chief executive Rory MacDonald told Investors’ Chronicle the company was looking for an alternative to the growth-then-buyout aim of many tech companies. “Lots of companies in our space get acquired by private equity but by going public we can support our clients for the long-term,” he said.
The strategy is to benefit from the significant growth in the public sector’s ever-growing digital needs. UK government organisations spent £3bn on digital transformation in the year ending March 31st and spending is expected to grow to £20bn by 2025. Globally it is forecast to be £290bn by then, according to Public.io.
“Our plan is to focus on the UK for the next two years and to then expand globally in three to five years,” said MacDonald. AS
