Multiple media channels report that Nucleus Financial, the Scottish fintech is planning to float on the junior Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in July 2018, in a move which could raise around £25 million and which would value the company at £150 million.

Valuation

While the exact share price of the floatation has yet to be fixed, the Times reports that the company could be valued at as much as £150 million.

The floatation is expected to involve the sale of about £25 million of shares in total. Nucleus said yesterday that listing the company will help to simplify its capital structure and provide flexibility around accessing funding to accelerate growth.

The Times reports that Mr Ferguson may sell “a small portion of his holding, the entirety of which is likely to be worth millions of pounds.” However the size of Mr Ferguson’s holding will remain unknown until the company publishes the prospectus for its listing.

Wrap Platform

Nucleus offers a ‘wrap’ service, which enables independent financial advisers to offer a single, secure platform for multiple investments, such as pensions, ISAs etc. The company charges financial advisers based upon the value of the assets managed.

Nucleus was founded in 2006 by David Ferguson and was backed by a number of independent financial advisers. The company now employs approximately 200 people and has won multiple awards, including the 2017 Scottish Financial Services Awards.

Record Profits

News of the floatation comes shortly after Nucleus announced record profits for the last financial year.

Nucleus reported that it generated an operating profit of £5.1 million, for the year ended December 2017, representing a 19% increase on 2016’s profit of £4.3m.

Revenue increased by 21% to £40.4m in 2017, from £33.3m reported for 2016.

Fintech Scotland

Mr Ferguson was also recently named the chair of Fintech Scotland, the industry body focused on helping Scotland’s financial technology sector become one of the top five hubs in the world..

If the proposed floatation proceeds, Nucleus will become the third financial technology business from Scotland to float in the recent past, following Beeks Financial Cloud (November 2017) and FreeAgent (November 2016), before the company was acquired by RBS for £53 million earlier in 2018.