Yahoo Finance Deliveroo and cannabis specialist among year’s worst-performing London floats
Deliveroo and a cannabis company backed by Snoop Dogg are among the worst performing London floats of 2021, with over a third of this year’s stock market debuts trading below their listing price.
Ready-meal firm Parsley Box, which suffered a shares plunge earlier this month after it warned investors it may need to raise more cash, is this year’s worst-performing listing after losing more than 80pc of its value since its stock market debut in March.
As of last week, Deliveroo was in the top 10 biggest flops after losing a third of its value since listing, according to retail investment platform AJ Bell.
The delivery company is followed on the list by trendy furniture retailer Made.com.
Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, which is backed by the rapper Snoop Dogg, also ranks highly on the list after falling 53pc into the red.
However, Laith Khalaf, an analyst from AJ Bell, said it has not been a bad year for the London market.
“It looks like a fairly positive success ratio,” he said, although admitted that this is “no consolation if you invested in one of the big losers”.
Floats that have done well this year include that of cybersecurity group Darktrace, up 64pc on its float price, although it has had a volatile year, as well as bar group Nightcap, which is run by ex-Dragons Den investor Sarah Willingham and has risen 90pc since listing.
Oxford Nanopore, the DNA sequencing start-up previously backed by fallen fund manager Neil Woodford, is up by more than 55pc.
Mr Khalaf said that one of the best performers of this year, Bens Creek, which mines coal for steel production, is still in its early days. “With a market cap of just over £100m and sitting in a sector where news flow can be tremendously positive or utterly ruinous for small caps, this isn’t an investment for the faint hearted,” he said.
The pandemic has created a windfall for investment banks, with deal fees ballooning as the chaos triggered a rush of mergers, capital raisings and stock market debuts.
The value of listings in Europe is at a record high for this time of year and is on track to beat the previous record set in 2000, Dealogic data show.
However, volatility sparked by the Covid crisis has meant that 36 takeovers and listings have been shelved so far this year as bosses spooked by the uncertainty pull the plug on their plans.
A spokesman for Parsley Box said the board is “committed to the long-term growth of the business catering to the underserved baby boomer-plus market”.
