Shares in Merlin Entertainments – owner of the London Eye and the Edinburgh Dungeon – enjoyed a wild ride on their first day of trading yesterday.
The company’s shares leaped more than 12% in debut trading on the London stock market on Friday, to value the Madame Tussauds and Legoland operator at more than £3.5billion.
The firm, which claims to be the second largest attraction business behind Disney, raised almost £1billion from hungry investors.
Merlin will receive around £200million to pay down debt while £35million will be forked out to pay advisory fees associated with the flotation.
The company’s bookrunners had expected shares to debut within the range of 280-330p, but blasted through the top end to as high as £3.55 in early trading before settling back to 338.78p.
Merlin, which closed the offering early due to strong demand, said 87.5% of the sale had gone to institutional investors such as pension funds, while retail investors received 12.5% of the shares.
Management, including chief executive Nick Varney, took 4.4% of the shares.
It is the second attempt Varney has made to float the company after an effort in 2012 was scrapped due to uncertain markets.
Mr Varney, who built the firm over the last 15 years through acquisition, said: “We are delighted with the strong response from both institutional and retail shareholders to our offer.
“We have long stated our belief that becoming a public company was Merlin’s ultimate destiny, providing the right long-term ownership to enable the next stage of development.”