Midwich's life on the London Stock Exchange gets under way

Diss-based distributor's shares admitted to the AIM this morning

After pricing its IPO on Tuesday, audiovisual distributor Midwich's shares were admitted to the Alternative Investment Market this morning, as expected.

Trading in shares of the Diss-based distributor got under way on the London Stock Exchange's market for smaller firms at 8am under the MIDW ticker.

Midwich's IPO valued the firm at £165.3m and was expected to raise gross proceeds of £75.2m.

Some £49.2m of the gross proceeds were earmarked for selling shareholders, with the rest set to go towards repaying loans, paying down debt and funding the final instalment of a recent acquisition.

Following the IPO, managing director Stephen Fenby (and connected persons) owns a 27.9 per cent stake in the firm, down from 59.2 per cent previously. Schroder and Hargreave Hale now own a 10 per cent and 7.3 per cent slice respectively. CFO Anthony Bailey (four per cent), as well as directors Lee Baker (4.1 per cent) and Stuart Mizon (3.1 per cent), have also all retained sizeable - albeit reduced - stakes in the distributor.

Following an expansion drive in France, Australasia and Germany, Midwich drew 30 per cent of its revenues from overseas in 2015. It now has 481 staff.

"A core component of the group's growth strategy is further expansion of its international operations and footprint into strategically targeted jurisdictions," Midwich said.