Princes’ float: a welcome listing, but the price says confidence is still scarce

London hasn’t had many stock market debuts lately, so Princes listing in London is a welcome development. It also brings a familiar, everyday food name to the market, which helps broaden the mix of listed companies — a deeper and more diverse new issue universe is a prerequisite for a healthier equity market.

Princes makes and sells tinned tuna and other canned fish, tomatoes and sauces under Napolina, cooking oils, juices and soft drinks, ready meals and other essentials. It supplies supermarkets with both own‑label products and its own brands. The group is based in Liverpool, has factories in the UK and Europe, and has been working on more responsible sourcing in seafood and tomatoes.

Yet the eventual price tells a slightly different story. The shares were sold at the lower end of expectations and early trading was muted. Pricing at the lower end of expectations shows that investors remain selective and cautious, but that caution is not unique to London — recent IPOs in the US and Europe have been priced conservatively too. Not every company will find eager buyers for a premium valuation just yet.

From an international comparative standpoint, recent listings of consumer adjacent companies elsewhere have also been cautious. In the US, grocery-adjacent Instacart and consumer brand IPOs (Birkenstock) have tended to price conservatively and seen only modest gains. In Europe, recent activity in Zurich and Frankfurt has seen more volume than London in 2025, but pricing has similarly been tight. 

Against that backdrop, Princes’ bottom‑of‑range pricing while consistent with global caution (not unique to London) should still be seen as progress rather than hesitation. Just days earlier, Shawbrook Group’s IPO opened up around 7% on its first day of trading— a clear signal that, when the story and valuation are right, investor appetite is there. Further, the pipeline for London listings appears to be strengthening, aided by regulatory reform and growing issuer confidence. 

The combination of early successes like Shawbrook and regulatory reforms — including the new listing rules and forthcoming prospectus regime — is quietly reshaping London’s equity markets into a more flexible and competitive environment. Momentum is rebuilding, and with each successful deal, the path for new issuers looks that bit clearer.

Of course, this is still an early stage: the UK market raised only modest sums earlier in 2025 compared with historic levels.  But the signs are encouraging. If more issuers like Princes and Shawbrook progress to listing and deliver credible performance, then we may begin to see a meaningful revival of London’s equity capital markets.