Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 5, 2026
2 min readLast updated: February 5, 2026
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Visma's London IPO could be delayed to 2026 due to a software sector sell-off, affecting plans for the largest IPO in years.
Feb 5 (Reuters) - Norwegian software company Visma may push its London IPO plans back to the latter half of 2026 after a significant sell-off in the global software sector, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Visma, owned by the British buyout firm Hg, had earlier considered listing in the UK as soon as the first half of this year, the report said.
According to the newspaper, the soonest a listing could take place would be in the second quarter, although no plans have been finalised.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Visma and Hg did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Visma had provisionally picked London for its IPO in part due to listing reforms made by Britain's financial regulator last year.
However, its plan was hindered after the selloff, partly sparked by AI developer Anthropic's updated chatbot release last week which heightened fears of AI-driven disruption in the data and professional services industry.
Preparations for a listing have continued, with an unnamed source telling the FT that London was a "difficult market" for the company to list into.
Visma makes accounting, payroll and HR software products for customers across the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
An IPO, or Initial Public Offering, is the process through which a private company offers its shares to the public for the first time, allowing it to raise capital from public investors.
Private equity refers to investment funds that buy and restructure companies that are not publicly traded, often aiming to improve their financial performance before selling them for a profit.
A software sell-off occurs when investors rapidly sell shares of software companies, often due to negative market trends or economic conditions, leading to a decline in stock prices.
Market capitalization is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares, calculated by multiplying the share price by the total number of shares. It reflects the company's size and investment potential.
The London Stock Exchange is one of the largest and oldest stock exchanges in the world, where shares of publicly traded companies are bought and sold, facilitating capital raising and investment.
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