Shares in Trainline jumped 18% on their first day of public trading, valuing the online rail and bus ticketing service at nearly £2bn.
The company, which raised £110m in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, is likely to join the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap firms.
Trainline set its offer price at £3.50 per share, but the float bucked a recent trend of weak stock market debuts with shares leaping by as much as 24% in morning trading. They closed up 18% at 414p.
The float produced a bumper payout for its chief executive, Clare Gilmartin. The former boss of the auction site eBay in the UK and Europe, Gilmartin owned 2.8% of the business, worth £47m at the float price. She cashed in £16m worth and still owns shares worth about £35m.
Two other directors were also turned into multimillionaires after the float. Douglas McCallum and Shaun McCabe made £6.6m and £4.9m, respectively.
Gilmartin joined Trainline in 2014. Before eBay she worked at Boston Consulting Group and Unilever.
Trainline was founded as a standalone business in 1999 by a consortium of UK train companies. It was then sold in 2006 for £160m to private equity buyers.
The previous owners had planned to float Trainline in 2015, but that was pulled at the last minute when another private equity investor, KKR, bought it for a reported £500m. KKR sold shares in the float worth £685m and have retained a substantial stake.
Since KKR took over, Trainline has embarked on a rapid growth path, expanding from the UK to sell tickets in 45 countries. The company, which employs more than 600 people mainly in offices in London and Edinburgh, claims more than 80m visits per month, with four in five visits through its mobile apps.
Of the £110m raised in the float the company will retain £93m, with the balance going to bankers in fees.
Trainline is aiming to exploit the increasing digitalisation of rail and coach ticketing across Europe, as well as further international expansion. Rail travel is also expected to increase in the coming decades as lower-carbon transport becomes a priority.
Gilmartin said: “We believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalise on the vast opportunity ahead and accelerate our expansion for the benefit of our customers, our train and coach company partners and our shareholders.”
The company brought in revenue of £210m from ticket sales worth £3.2bn in its latest financial year. The UK business made £148m in profits during the same period, according to documents published last month.
Russ Mould, investment director at the investing platform AJ Bell, said: “It isn’t the cheapest ticket seller in the UK when you take into account fees – the big train companies will sell you a ticket with no fees at all, for example. However, the convenience factor means a large number of travellers are happy to use Trainline for all their transportation booking.”
