The offer is expected to raise total gross proceeds of approximately £312 million. A third of it will go to The Treasury relating to Virgin's purchase of Northern Rock during the financial crisis.
Virgin Money will give a market capitalisation of around £1.25bn and employees will receive £1,000 worth of shares each.
Conditional dealings in Virgin Money ordinary shares commenced on the London Stock Exchange at 8.00am today.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Money, said:
“I am delighted to welcome all our new shareholders to Virgin Money. Our capability to deliver growth at meaningful scale, the quality of our balance sheet and the fact that we are unburdened by legacy issues makes us stand apart from other banks, and these strengths give us the potential to deliver on-going returns to our shareholders through both capital growth and progressive dividend payments.
“The completion of our IPO will see us make a final payment to the Government of £50 million as consideration for our acquisition of Northern Rock plc, taking the total paid to over £1 billion.
“As we begin life as a public company, we are committed to maintaining the straightforward, transparent approach to business that we believe helps differentiate us. We are passionate about improving competition in UK retail banking and believe that today’s IPO is another step forward for us as we seek to deliver on that objective.
"I would also like to thank all of my colleagues at Virgin Money for their hard work in bringing us to this point. There are many colleagues, like me, who have spent 20 years working with the Virgin brand. As we previously announced, each employee will be awarded £1,000 worth of shares in the business upon flotation meaning that all colleagues have a stake in our future success.”
John Tracy, Head of TD Direct Investing (Europe), commented:
“We’ve seen a slower than expected response from TD customers to the Virgin Money IPO this morning. There are a couple of factors at play here that lend themselves to a more cautious approach; first there was a lack of consumer awareness on the specifics and the timeline of the offering – with no prospectus available. Secondly, the stock was priced at the bottom end of expectations – which has caused many to hold off. Retail investors clearly want more information and any growth of interest will be slow burn.”
