Tinned tuna maker Princes floats at nearly £1.2bn in boost for London

The tinned tuna maker Princes Group has kicked off a float with a valuation of nearly £1.2bn in a boost for the London stock market.

The debut of the shares in the almost 150-year-old company, which is best known for its Princes tinned tuna and Napolina tinned tomatoes, olive oil and pasta, marks a rare bright spot in the UK’s lacklustre market for flotations.

However, the stock launched at the bottom end of a £1.16bn to £1.24bn target range set out last week and fell 1% in early trading.

The Princes Group has a £2.1bn turnover and is controlled by the Italian family company Newlat – rebranded as NewPrinces – but is based in Liverpool. It also owns Crisp ’n Dry cooking oil and sells Branston baked beans under licence.

NewPrinces bought Princes from the Japanese group Mitsubishi last year for £700m before expanding the group.

The group, which recently acquired Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building where its head office is based, was expected to raise £400m from the sale of new shares to fund expansion plans.

The float is the latest in a relative flurry of activity for the London Stock Exchange (LSE) after a drought last year.

On Thursday, the small business lender Shawbrook Group launched its initial public offering at a £1.92bn valuation, the biggest London stock market launch of the year so far. Its shares rose by about 8% on its first day of trading.

The Beauty Tech Group – which owns the gadget brands CurrentBody, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser – floated with a valuation of about £300m earlier this month.

The payment app Revolut is also reportedly considering a dual listing in New York and London for its hoped-for $75bn (£57bn) share sale and the consumer goods group Unilever is poised to demerge its ice-cream division, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, with a triple listing in Amsterdam, New York and London before the end of this year.

The UK business and trade secretary, Peter Kyle, who was at the LSE for Princes’ market debut, said: “The LSE is a renowned global trading hub and the Princes Group is a great British success story. The firm’s decision to list is not only a huge vote of confidence in this government’s reforms to capital markets but in British business.

“As we look ahead, we remain focused on expanding our international footprint, deepening our category leadership and delivering sustainable, long-term value for all our stakeholders.”