Oscar-winning visual effects firm pulls planned listing on stock exchange

OSCAR-WINNING VISUAL effects business DNEG has pulled its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange less than a month after first revealing its intentions.

Bosses at the company, which has won five Oscars for its work on Blade Runner 2049 and First

Man, among others, planned to raise £150m from the listing.

But on Friday the company issued a short statement, saying: “DNEG has today decided to postpone its initial public offering (IPO) due to ongoing market uncertainty.

“The company can confirm that it has received a strong level of interest from investors and therefore will be assessing when to recommence its IPO plans once market conditions improve.”

The decision comes at a difficult time for businesses in the UK, which remain buffeted by the economic and political uncertainty.

Recent data from accountancy giant EY showed that the third quarter of 2019 saw the smallest number of listings in the UK for a decade.

In the first nine months of the year, there were 24 listings, raising £4.8bn – a fall of 55 per cent from a year earlier.

DNEG hoped to use the money raised to pay down its debts and to cash in on the limited number of special effects providers capable of offering the scale and expertise needed on big-budget films and shows.

The company revealed revenues for the year to March 31 hit 309 million US dollars (£245.5m) with profits of 20.7 million dollars (£16.5m), and adjusted pretax profits of 69.6 million dollars (£55.3m).