NewRiver IPO shelved

Start-up company NewRiver Retail has postponed plans to raise equity on London’s Alternative Investment Market, the junior London Stock Exchange.

Start-up company NewRiver Retail has postponed plans to raise equity on London’s Alternative Investment Market, the junior London Stock Exchange.

Reports this morning say adviser and main IPO booker runner Merrill Lynch failed to raise the requisite £100 million (€116 million; $162 million).

Had the IPO gone ahead as planned, it would have become the second property IPO on the London Stock Exchange in the space of a month.

Max Property raised £220 million in May and was over-subscribed.

According to documents filed with the stock exchange, NewRiver waa hoping to be admitted yesterday and aimed to target the UK property market with a specific emphasis on retail assets.

Initially, the firm’s business plan was to target opportunities where the predominant rental income is derived from tenants operating in the “value” sector and food retailing.

The firm is being led by former banking heavyweight Paul Roy. Roy was at Merrill Lynch for 30 years, at one time serving as co-president of Merrill Lynch’s global markets and investment banking division.

David Lockhart, founder and former chief executive of a Scottish property company called Halladale has become a director of the firm. Lockhart floated Halladale on AIM in 2001. At the time, the move bucked the trend of property companies being taken private. The company was sold in 2007 to Australian company Stockdale.