Car and personal loans company Plenti Group tumbled 22 per cent on its ASX debut on Wednesday, revealing just how much hot money was in its initial public offering.
The stock traded down from the time the bell rang and its house brokers Bell Potter and Wilsons struggled to find buyers as the sell orders kept flowing through their systems.
Although Plenti’s $55 million IPO was relatively small in the scheme of things, it comes at a time when there are a dozen or more similar stories in front of fund managers, all seeking support for their own listings.
One of them, home loans platform Lendi, was pitching funds on Wednesday at the same time investors were watching Plenti’s shares fall. (We reveal Lendi’s $4 billion pitch in Thursday’s column).
The big question is whether Plenti’s poor showing has any impact on the IPO market more generally. It’s only one deal, but if there are a few Plentis in a row, it could get hairy for the big pipeline of floats.