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A maternity wear group that was part of the 2021 rush of London stock market listings is on the verge of collapsing into administration, two years after being taken private by its former backers at a 90 per cent discount.
Seraphine Group, whose clothes were worn by Catherine, Princess of Wales, during her pregnancies, has filed notice to appoint administrators from Interpath Advisory, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
Seraphine floated in July 2021 with “BUMP” as its stock market ticker and was one of a flurry of listings that year.
It listed with a £150mn valuation, raising £56mn from investors, but swiftly crashed in value, making it one of the many disastrous listings from that vintage.
Mayfair Private Equity, which used the proceeds from the listing to pay off loans, bought back the business two years later for £15.3mn.
Earlier this month, Seraphine hired advisers at Interpath to find new investors amid challenging circumstances, but the process has since failed. While there had been some interest in buying the brand, no viable investor had emerged for the whole of the business, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
Seraphine was founded in 2002 by Cecile Reinaud, after she had designed outfits for several pregnant friends.
Many of the companies in London’s 2021 IPO cohort have left investors nursing big losses.
Food delivery group Deliveroo, which listed with a £7.6bn valuation, struck a £2.9bn deal in May to be taken over by DoorDash. Chip designer Alphawave has also agreed a $2.4bn takeover by American semiconductor group Qualcomm, less than half its valuation when it listed.
Cybersecurity group Darktrace was also taken private last year but the deal was at a significantly higher valuation than its listing price.
A quarter of the biggest companies in London’s 2021 vintage have since left the stock market while those remaining have lost £10bn in value, according to FT analysis.
The figures highlight the UK’s struggle to attract and retain top-tier businesses on its public markets.
Mayfair Private Equity and Interpath declined to comment. Seraphine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.