Visma eyeing up London for stock market debut - report

(Sharecast News) - Norway's Visma is planning a City debut, it was reported on Thursday, in a rare win for the under-pressure London Stock Exchange. Visma, which supplies accounting and payroll software to small and medium-sized companies, has been majority owned by British private equity firm Hg since 2006.

It has grown significantly since then, however, and is now thought to be valued at around €19bn.

Hg therefore wants to float the business, and has opted for London over Amsterdam, the Financial Times reported.

The newspaper said London had been selected because of its deep capital markets and range of investors, citing unnamed people familiar with the deliberations.

However, it also noted that the listing - which is potentially slated for early next year - was dependent on promised government reforms, which sources said where essential to outweigh complications caused by Brexit.

The London stock market is enduring a difficult period, as companies either favour other exchanges or going private. Last year, a total of 88 firms delisted or transferred their primary listing. Only 18 companies joined the market.

Visma, which lends its name to the leading Dutch cycling team Visma-Lease a Bike, has around 1.4m customers across the Nordics, Benelux, central and eastern Europe and Latin America.

It posted pre-tax profits of €185m on revenues of €2.8bn in 2024.

Hg, which currently owns around 70% of the business, is expected to retain a stake post IPO, the FT noted.

Both Hg and Visma have yet to comment on the report.