Shawbrook, a challenger bank, soars on flotation

The second challenger bank in a month to float on the stock market got off to a flying start yesterday.

Shawbrook, the SME lender backed by Pollen Street Capital, the former RBS private-equity arm, raised £90m as part of a share placing at 290p a share. The shares immediately jumped to a healthy 5 per cent premium, before closing 16p higher at 306p. At that level the bank is valued at £765m.

Pollen investors sold down their stake to 59 per cent in the share placing.

Richard Pyman, the chief executive of Shawbrook, said: “We look forward to the next stage of our journey as Shawbrook continues to deliver on its strategy to become an increasingly well-known name in… British banking.”

The flotation follows that last month of rival Aldermore Bank, which is valued at £810m. Its shares were offered at 192p and yesterday were trading at a 24 per cent premium to that at 239p.

Shawbrook is chaired by theformer RBS chief executive Sir George Mathewson, 75, who said he now intends to step down.

The bank ended last year with a loan book of £2.3bn and made pre-tax profits of £49.1m. It specialises in commercial mortgages, asset finance and lending against invoices.