Flying start for AMP's spin-off

LIFE and fund management group HHG made a robust stock market debut today, its value soaring above £900m within minutes of the start of London trading.

Shares in HHG - which comprises fund manager Henderson and the closed life funds of Pearl, NPI and London Life - were trading at 38 1/2p by mid-afternoon, a 28% premium to the issue price of 30p set last week.

The group's market capitalisation rose to almost £950m as more than 150m shares changed hands. In first-day dealing in Australia, where it is also listed, 258m shares were traded.

The float brightened up an anti-climactic start for the share market after its year-high close yesterday. The FTSE 100 slipped 3 points to 4421 today.

The demerger represents a fresh chapter in Australian insurance giant AMP's increasingly desperate attempt to offload the troubled business and shore up its own battered balance sheet. It also reduces AMP's holding in HHG to 15%.

But the share price rise will not be enough to prevent AMP from having to make further huge write-downs on HHG, which is still valued much too highly in AMP's books.

London-based HHG, which also owns the independent financial adviser Towry Law and a 50% stake in Virgin Money, is due to join the FTSE 250, the index of second-liners.

The float raised £190m of fresh capital for HHG, which manages £69bn of assets and the life policies of around five million people.

AMP chief executive Andrew Mohl said he was hoping investors would look beyond the initial trading performance of the two entities. 'We remain confident that the fundamental long-term value of AMP and HHG will emerge over time as a result of the demerger,' he said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in