New fund manager Ninety One braved some of the most volatile market conditions in decades on Monday as it spun out onto the stock market.
Owner Investec, the Anglo-African financial services giant, carved out the business to float last year and decided to plough on despite the ongoing coronavirus chaos.
The listing valued the firm at £1.2 billion. Last month a price range suggested it would be worth £1.7 billion.
Ninety One chief executive Hendrik du Toit said too much work had been done to pull the float, which has been in the works for 18 months.
“If you’ve done all that work you might as well implement,” he said.
“It would have been far more costly and created indecision and uncertainty which would have affected the organisation. We didn’t want people to work in an environment of certainty. Whatever price the market puts on a piece of paper that is secondary to the business functioning well and serving clients appropriately.”
Markets were in meltdown today due to coronavirus but Du Toit said staff were “calm” and “deep into their work” despite the crisis.
“The economy and markets will recover again. It’s how long they take and that’s a function of how we operate right now,” he said.
