Shares of single-board microcomputer manufacturer The Raspberry Pi Foundation hit 39% on the London Stock Exchange as the company began a “conditional dealing” phase, with shares expected to be widely available soon after rumours began swirling in May 2024.
This rare addition of a tech company to the London Stock Exchange, which, per CNBC, has largely struggled to attract technology companies in recent years, is paying off. Shares were initially priced at 280 pence but, at the time of writing, have reached 390 pence.
The company was initially valued at £541.6 million. Available shares are split between 45.9 million available ordinary shares sold by the majority shareholder Raspberry Pi Mid Co Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the RPi Foundation, 2.13 million ordinary shares held by other parties, and 11.23 million new shares.
RPi on the LSE
Should demand continue to rise and impact supply, an ‘overallotement’ will allow the RPi Foundation to issue 4.6 million shares valued at £178.9 million.
We shouldn’t be surprised by this exceptional opening performance by the company. CNBC have noted that RPi revenues were up 41% year-on-year as of 2023, with the company posting $265.8 million as their earnings that year.
It’s as yet unclear as to whether the listing of a local technology company on the LSE will attract others from the UK or even further afield.
Chip giant Arm, which announced an investment in the RPi Foundation in November 2023 (and already saw its hardware used in Pi products), chose to go public on the Nasdaq in the U.S in September of that year.
When we reported on those rumors in August of that year, the Amazon, Intel, Nvidia and Alphabet vultures were all reportedly circling to invest.
