57 share lots sold during debut of Seedrs’ new secondary market.
Seedrs, a major UK equity crowdfunding platform, has drawn its first share trading window to a close. The company says that some of its investors have realised up to 19x returns by selling their shares.
Seedrs' week-long trading windows will open on the first Tuesday of every month henceforth. Only existing investors are able to trade on the aftermarket, either to increase or reduce their shareholdings in companies that they have already invested in.
138 share lots from 80 different businesses were listed during the platform’s first trading window. Of these, 57 share lots from 40 different businesses have been sold. The share prices that are attached to these lots are determined by Seedrs, using its own valuation methodology. Accountancy firm EY has previously vouched for this methodology as being consistent with International Private Equity and Venture Capital (IPEV) Guidelines.
Examples of investors profiting during the platform’s premiere trading window include a 9.5x return for one investor, increasing to 19x when factoring in SEIS relief, and a 7.5x return for another, increasing to 15x with SEIS. These returns equated to profits of £600 and £643 respectively. The original investments were made in 2013 and 2012 respectively, meaning that both remain eligible for SEIS relief.
A more comprehensive summary of the profits and losses realised during the past week of trading is yet to materialise. Seedrs has not responded to a request for this.
There have been more than 275 requests to sell shares in the next trading window, which will open in early July.
Seedrs has previously stated its intention to add more functionality to the secondary market going forwards, including such features as longer trading windows or even continuous trading, negotiated or bid/offered prices, eligibility for new investors, and so on.
“Secondary markets are challenging to operate successfully, and we are very conscious of our obligation to provide our investors the best experience we can but we are obviously delighted with the success of our first trading window and we will continue to observe behaviour and make improvements as we approach our next window in July,” said Seedrs’ chief investment officer Thomas Davies.
