AA Ltd’s share price down, falls in first day of trading after its 2.4-billion-dollar initial public offering

The largest roadside assistance provider in the U.K. – AA Ltd declined in its first day of trading after its 1.4-billion-pound (2.4-billion-dollar) initial public offering that ended in the departure of its private-equity holders. The company used to be property of Acromas, which on the other hand is held by Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP, CVC Capital Partners Ltd and Permira Advisers LLP.

According to an official statement, made by AA Ltd today, it managed to sell 554 million shares at the price of 250 pence each. The stock declined by as much as 7.6% in morning trade on Monday. AA Ltd also revealed that it plans to use 185 million pounds of the proceeds of the stock sale to narrow its borrowings, which currently amount to about 3 billion pounds.

Mr. Nick Hewitt, who is the executive director of the company said in the statement, which was cited by the Wall Street Journal: “We are going to be very much focused on the core business of serving members lower the lifetime running cost of their cars.”

Earlier this month – on June 6th, the company announced that it got binding commitments estimated to more than 930 million pounds from several investors including Blackrock, GLG Partners, Aviva, Invesco, Henderson Global, CRMC, Lansdowne Partners LP, etc.

The Initial Public Offering of AA Ltd was officially announced after the owners of the company reached an agreement to sell shares to a group that includes both its managers and the ex-chairman of National Car Parks – Mr. Bob Mackenzie.

As reported by the Financial Times, the Chief Executive Officer of AA Ltd – Mr. Chris Jansen – explained that demand for companys shares was “no doubt driven by a combination of the core strengths of the business and the expectation of what we can do with the business in the future”. Mr. Jansen also added: “People [in Britain] spend £60bn a year running their vehicles and that doesn’t include buying them or petrol. We currently have a 1 per cent share of that. I think we can give much better value to our customers.”

AA Ltd was losing 4% to trade at 240.00 pence per share by 12:02 GMT.