Goldman Sachs-backed £3.4bn investment firm to exit London stock market

Goldman Sachs-backed investment business Petershill Partners has said it plans to delist from the London Stock Exchange in a fresh blow for the City’s financial markets.

The FTSE 250 company is to become private in a deal which will value it at around £3.4 billion.

Bosses at the business, which is majority owned by US banking giant Goldman Sachs, said its share value on the index has “not appropriately reflected the quality and underlying value of the company’s assets, its strong financial performance and attractive growth prospects”.

The company added: “Therefore, having evaluated the company’s strategic options, the board has concluded that the company should proceed with a delisting”.

The group, which launched on the stock market in 2021, specialises in allowing retail investors to engage with private equity and hedge funds.

The company has traded at a significant discount to the value of its financial holdings amid wider pressure on equity markets amid economic uncertainty and high borrowing costs.

Petershill said it will hand 921 million dollars (£685 million) to shareholders to take the company off the London market.

Shareholders will receive around 308p per share cancelled if the deal is given the go-ahead at a meeting in November.

Petershill owns a stake in Clearlake Capital, the US-based majority owner of Chelsea FC.

It is the latest knock for the London Stock Exchange, which has seen a number of major companies taken private or opting for listings on rival stock markets.

Earlier this year, fintech firm Wise shifted its primary stock listing from London to the US to improve access to capital, while drugmaker Indivior also scrapped its secondary listing in London.

Unilever also opted to give its Magnum Ice Cream Company spin-off a primary listing in Amsterdam.

However, London has seen an uptick in IPOs (initial public offerings) in recent months, with The Beauty Tech Group among those set to go public shortly.