Dr. Martens shares briefly fell below their initial public offering price from a year ago after private-equity giant Permira sold a swathe of shares at a discount.
Dr. Martens
DOCS,
shares slumped as low as 366.6 pence after Permira sold 65 million shares for £257 million, at a 6% discount to Wednesday’s close, a year after the initial public offering that priced at 370 pence.
Permira still holds 36% of the bootmaker. The share sale has triggered the belief that “Permira has now fired the starting gun for a gradual disposal of its remaining holding,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Mould.
The FTSE 100
UKX,
weakened 0.6% in afternoon trade, with the U.K. index not suffering the same losses as U.S. equities in the first opportunities for British traders to react to the hawkish Federal Reserve minutes.
Data from Citi shows U.K. energy and financial sectors with zero correlation to inflation-adjusted U.S. bond yields from 2018 to November. And U.K. financials did rally on bond yield hopes, with Standard Chartered
STAN,
shares rising 4% and Lloyds Banking Group
LLOY,
gaining 2%.
Experian
EXPN,
shares lost 4% as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau criticized the credit bureau, and rivals Equifax
EFX,
and TransUnion
TRU,
for not providing “meaningful responses” to customer complaints.
