Oxford Nanopore hires banks for $3 billion London listing - sources

By Abhinav Ramnarayan

LONDON (Reuters) - Oxford Nanopore is moving ahead with plans for an initial public offering (IPO) and has now hired banks to manage the process, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a further boost to London's drive to be a hub for tech firms.

The Oxford-based life sciences company has appointed Bank of America, Citi and JP Morgan as global coordinators for the London listing that is likely to value the company in excess of $3 billion, the sources said.

The company, Bank of America and Citi declined to comment. JP Morgan was not immediately available to comment.

Oxford Nanopore said earlier this year it had started preparing for an IPO, and expected to launch the deal in the second half of 2021.

The company provides DNA/RNA sequencing technology for sectors such as biomedical, pathogen, plant and animal scientific research, infectious diseases and food and agriculture. It has also worked on rapid COVID-19 tests.

It was valued at 1.7 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) in a funding round last year, but was valued earlier this year at 2.3 billion pounds by IP Group, one of its shareholders.

Other shareholders include Chinese internet giant Tencent, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and British money manager Schroders.

The firm recorded revenues of 52 million pounds in 2019, up 60% from the year before, though losses stood at 72 million pounds as the company invested in commercial growth and a new factory.

(Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan. Editing by Mark Potter)