Shelf Life to Share Price – Princes Eyes a £700m London Listing

Princes is one of those names you meet on the supermarket shelves long before it makes an appearance in the financial news. Tinned tuna, corned beef, even those tins of peaches stacked quietly in the cupboard – the kind of staple you reach for on a Tuesday night when inspiration runs dry. Not, in other words, the stuff of headlines in the Square Mile. But behind those tins lies a corporate story stretching from 19th-century Liverpool to modern Milan – and now, potentially, to a fresh £700 million listing in London.

From Merseyside to Mitsubishi

The business began life in 1880 in Liverpool as Simpson & Roberts, an early player in tinned seafood. Over the following century it became a British fixture, eventually catching the eye of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, which bought Princes in 1989. Under Mitsubishi, the group expanded and modernised into one of the UK’s largest food and drink suppliers, the sort of company whose products most of us have bought without ever really thinking about who makes them.

The Italian Job

Fast-forward to 2024, and Mitsubishi decided it was time to pass the baton. Italy’s Newlat Food agreed to buy Princes in a deal worth £700 million – £650 million in cash and £50 million in Newlat shares, giving Mitsubishi a continuing stake. Completion was announced on 30 July 2024, and the enlarged group has since been styled “New Princes Group.”

That ownership structure is important. New Princes is already a Milan-listed company, and one of its subsidiaries – Centrale del Latte d’Italia, a dairy business – also trades separately on the same exchange. The Princes business in the UK, however, remains a private subsidiary inside the group. In other words, when people talk about “Princes” in investment circles, they’re really referring to a bigger, pan-European food group with several moving parts.

So, What’s Coming to London?

This is where it gets interesting. Reports suggest that having paid £700 million to acquire Princes last year, New Princes is preparing a London listing of part of its international operations. The planned float would value that slice of the group at around the same £700 million mark – though this time as a market valuation, not a purchase price.

 But this wouldn’t be Princes Limited – the UK tins-and-juice company – marching onto the London Stock Exchange by itself. Instead, it would be a group vehicle containing a carve-out of international businesses, with Princes UK as one piece of the package.

The exact perimeter (what goes in, what stays out) hasn’t yet been disclosed – at the time of writing, no FCA-approved prospectus has been published. Until then, investors are working off press reports and hints from management. The broad expectation, however, is a London listing that gives the group a second public market alongside Milan.

The £700m Number

So, what does that £700 million figure really mean? It isn’t a fresh pot of cash waiting to be banked – it’s the sticker price the stock market is expected to put on the company when trading begins. In City shorthand, that’s the “market cap” – the total value of all its shares on day one.

How do they arrive at it? By starting with Princes’ profits before tax and interest (EBITDA, for the acronym fans among us), then comparing them with other listed food groups. If the market usually pays around ten times those earnings, Princes is likely to be pitched in the same ballpark, with a few adjustments for debt and deal costs. It sounds technical, but in practice it’s a fairly routine exercise – plug in the numbers, compare with peers, and let the spreadsheets do the work.

The prospectus will also reveal who’s actually selling. If new shares are issued, the money goes into the company for things like cutting debt or upgrading factories. If existing owners are offloading part of their stake, the proceeds go to them instead. Investors will be watching closely for which way the balance tips.

So, the headline isn’t about how much cash is coming in, but about what price tag the City is willing to hang on a 145-year-old food supplier as it steps onto the London stage.

What Investors Will Want to Know

When a company lists in London, it has to do more than wave a brand name around. The prospectus must explain how the business makes its money, what might trip it up, and how well it can cope when costs rise.

For Princes, that means spelling out some basics. The company buys large amounts of tuna, meat and fruit, much of it from overseas. Prices for these can jump suddenly and so can exchange rates. Add in shipping costs, and profit can disappear faster than a multipack of tuna on offer in Sainsbury’s.

Investors will want straight answers to practical questions too: what if tuna supplies become harder to secure? How much pressure do higher energy bills put on margins? And how safe are dividends if costs keep climbing? These are the issues that decide whether a food company looks solid and predictable, or one that’s forever warning about profit shortfalls.

So, the investment case isn’t just about people carrying on buying tins. It’s about whether Princes can hold steady when currencies swing, crops fail, or transport costs spike. That’s the picture the City will be looking for when the prospectus appears.

Why It Matters

For London, a £700 million float from a household food name would be a welcome boost. The market has been starved of new listings in recent years, and a steady consumer business could help rebuild confidence.

For New Princes, a London listing would broaden its investor base and bring fundraising closer to where much of its business is sold. It’s a way of saying: we don’t just feed the UK; we also want UK investors on board.

For investors, though, the decision isn’t about whether people will keep buying tuna and pineapple chunks – they will. The real question is how well the company can turn that steady demand into reliable profits. If the disclosures show strong margins, a sensible dividend policy, and clear answers on costs and supply chains, the IPO could be a draw. If not, the market may think twice.

The Last Word

Princes has spent 145 years filling cupboards, not columns in the financial press. A London IPO would change that. Its success will hinge less on name recognition and more on what’s written in the prospectus: reliable earnings, a clear plan, and answers investors can trust. Get that right, and the City may well decide this old hand in food still has plenty of life on the shelf – no best before date required.