SafeCharge sees modest 5% IPO ‘pop’ in first day trading, valuation tops $400 million

SafeCharge raised $126 million, all proceeds to the company, plans to pay out half of EBITDA in dividends.

After successfully pricing its IPO earlier this week, payment processor SafeCharge (LON:SCH) had its first day of trading Wednesday as a public company. After pricing its shares in the IPO at £1.62, SafeCharge shares traded up slightly (by typical IPO ‘pop’ standards) by 4.6%, to close at £1.695.

So what does that mean in terms of overall valuation? And how does it compare to other recent IPOs?

At its current valuation of $420 million, SafeCharge is valued at about 6.8x trailing 12-month Revenues and a healthy 43.2x EBITDA. 

SafeCharge IPO valuation

SafeCharge’s valuation compares favorably with other recent IPOs, such as the one of affiliate marketing company XLMedia – as we reported earlier, XLMedia is being valued at about 6.6x Revenues (nearly identical to SafeCharge) and 14.7x EBITDA.

Valuations given to newly-public companies also put into context the valuation of retail forex and CFD broker Plus500, which went public last summer. A lot of people have been asking us what we think of Plus500’s lofty $1.25 billion valuation. Given its just-announced Q1 Revenues of more than $60 million, Plus500 is actually trading at a relative discount to SafeCharge and XLMedia, at around 5.2x Revenues.

Will these valuations hold up? Time will tell, but we’re feeling good about them as long as these companies can continue to show growth. Time will tell…

To see the SafeCharge IPO prospectus (Admission Document) click here (pdf).

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.

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