MARKET REPORT: Fintech company CAB Payments cuts boss after IPO
A fintech company must replace its boss, less than a year after its disastrous IPO.
CAB Payments was listed in July with a price tag of £850m, but has since seen around £600m of its value wiped off.
And now, CEO Bhairav Trivedi, who has been at the helm since January 2021, will leave his job after the company’s annual results on March 26.
His successor Neeraj Kapur previously worked as finance boss at London-listed Vanquis Banking Group (up 0.3 percent, or 0.4p, to 132p).
While Trivedi will take on the role of senior advisor to CAB, his departure as CEO comes after a turbulent time for the company. Shares of CAB Payments – which helps its clients move money in emerging markets such as Bangladesh, Cameroon and Senegal – fell by almost three-quarters in one session last October after a booming profit warning.
Disastrous float: CAB Payments was listed in July with a price tag of £850 million, but has since seen around £600 million wiped off its value
The stock, which was floating at 335p, fell 2.6 percent, or 2.6p, to 99.4p. Its value is just under £260 million. In the broader market, the FTSE 100 gained 0.3 percent, or 21.79 points, to 7706.28 and the FTSE 250 lost 0.4 percent, or 83.94 points, to 19179.56.
Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent in early trading and the S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.06 percent.
Shares of Nvidia rose another 1.6 percent, after rising 16 percent in the previous session.
The chipmaker saw its market capitalization rise £214 billion on Thursday after stellar results. It was the largest increase in market value in one day ever recorded.
Back in London, Bytes Technology published details of the shares traded by his boss, which he has not made public since the IT software company went public in December 2020. Neil Murphy, who joined the company in 1997 as sales director, resigned on Wednesday and told the board about his dealings.
The disclosure showed that 313,741 undisclosed shares were bought for 479.23 pence each and the same amount was sold for 483.46 pence. Shares fell 2.4 percent, or 13p, to 532.5p.
There was little respite for WPP after the advertising giant lost the confidence of a city broker.
Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock a day after the company posted a huge drop in profits as major tech companies cut back on advertising. On Thursday, WPP said its 2023 profit was £346m – a whopping 70 per cent lower than the year before. Shares fell 0.1 percent, or 0.6p, to 730p.
Domino’s Pizza was also on the receiving end of a downgrade from the broker. Barclays expressed concern that a slowdown in app downloads, according to figures from industry tracker Apptopia, could impact sales.
Nearly 80 percent of Domino’s online orders in the third quarter were placed through the app. Shares fell 4.3 percent, or 15.6p, to 351.6p.
Biotechnology company PureTech Health went in the opposite direction after the company it founded stayed on course to be bought by US pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb for $14 billion in the first half of this year.
Karuna Therapeutics, which is developing a treatment for adults suffering from schizophrenia and is under review by the US regulator, agreed to the acquisition in December 2023.
Shares in PureTech Health rose 11.6 per cent, or 22.1p, to 213.5p.
Gas and electricity supplier Yu Group has strengthened its finances by signing a five-year hedging agreement with Shell Energy.
The utility, which also installs smart meters for British companies, has suffered from volatile energy prices. Yu’s deal with Shell Energy frees up more than £50m of cash that had been placed as collateral on its balance sheet. Shares rose 12.1 percent, or 140p, to 1300p.