Arrow Global Has Successful Debut on London Stock Exchange

UK debt buyer and collector Arrow Global began trading its shares Tuesday morning on the London Stock Exchange. The company’s stock debuted at 205 pence ($3.30) per share and its price has steadily increased over the day, with the price hovering around 223 pence ($3.60) in afternoon trading.

Arrow’s IPO raised around $305 million, $80 million of which will go to the company. Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Special Opportunities Fund was listed as one of the major selling shareholders. The initial share price valued the business at $576 million.

“Our focus now is on continuing to drive growth, leveraging our sophisticated data and analytics capabilities, in order to offer investors a highly cash generative business with significant earnings visibility,” Chief Executive Tom Drury said in a statement.

The public share offering marks a new chapter in the path of a company considered to be a leader in UK debt purchasing.

Arrow Global began its life as the European arm of U.S.-based Arrow Financial Services, itself a unit of student loan giant Sallie Mae at the time. Sallie Mae decided to wind-down its debt buying operations in 2008, focusing instead on contingency collection work in the ARM industry with its Pioneer Credit Recovery and General Revenue Corp. units.

Sallie sold the European operations, Arrow Global, later that year after determining that it would not be able to find a buyer for the U.S. debt buying operations.