By Lars Mucklejohn
Of Financial News
The London Stock Exchange Group has written down the value of its stake in retail investment platform PrimaryBid by 87% in a major blow to the fintech.
LSEG said its holding had a fair value of 4 million pounds ($5.2 million) at the end of 2024, down from 31 million pounds a year earlier, according to the exchange group's annual report.
LSEG has a 7.2% stake in PrimaryBid, a person familiar with the matter told Financial News. That implies PrimaryBid's valuation has cratered to around 56 million pounds, down from 431 million pounds at the end of 2023.
It is also a massive fall from the roughly $715 million price tag PrimaryBid achieved in its last funding round in 2022, led by Japanese investor SoftBank.
LSEG bought into London-based PrimaryBid in 2020 following a commercial partnership between the pair. Charlie Walker, then LSEG's primary markets head and now deputy chief executive of its flagship stock exchange, joined the fintech's board as part of its investment.
The write-down from one of its largest investors is the latest setback for PrimaryBid, which was once hailed as a potential 'unicorn.'
It was founded in 2016 and provides technology that connects retail investors to listed company share sales including IPOs.
In February, nine of PrimaryBid's senior staff joined Peel Hunt-backed rival RetailBook, including co-founder James Deal. Former LSEG chair Donald Brydon stepped down from the same role at PrimaryBid last April.
The firm put around 40 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, at risk of redundancy early last year, Bloomberg reported.
The shake-up followed a dearth of IPO activity, with 2024 marking the worst year for new London listings since the financial crisis. Meanwhile, policymakers are pushing for urgent reforms to encourage more retail investment among the British public.
Cutting its administrative costs helped PrimaryBid narrow its pre-tax losses to 22 million pounds in the year ended March 31, 2024, an improvement on 29 million pounds a year earlier, according to registry filings.
The 27 million pound fair value write-down makes PrimaryBid the least valuable of the five smaller equity investments listed in LSEG's annual report--those it doesn't have a majority stake in or wield significant influence over.
It was previously the second largest behind Brussels-based financial market infrastructure provider Euroclear, in which LSEG sold its 377 million pound stake last December.
The top spot is now held by Finbourne Technology. LSEG almost doubled the valuation of its stake in the British investment data management platform to 14 million pounds at the end of last year, up from 8 million pounds in 2023.
PrimaryBid declined to comment.
Financial News is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.
Write to Lars Mucklejohn at lars.mucklejohn@dowjones.com
Website: www.fnlondon.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 28, 2025 10:46 ET (14:46 GMT)
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