The company has avoided the traditional IPO route at every stage.

The atypical approach to trading is indicative of Spotify’s attitude to going public. The worst would have been a stock that swung wildly or lacked the available shares to trade smoothly. Since there are no restrictions on investors selling, more than 100 million tradable shares are available in the market.īefore the listing, Spotify’s best-case scenario was for modest intraday movement with trading volume similar to a typical IPO, in which 50% to 100% of tradable shares change hands, the people said. PDT, shortly after the end of the regular trading day. Only about 30 million shares had traded as of 1:08 p.m. Yet questions are already being asked about whether the market valuation is sustainable, given that the price was set by a relatively small number of shares changing hands. Instead, Spotify and its advisors wanted a more mundane outcome for its unusual listing, people familiar with the matter said before the shares started trading.

A successful first day of trading for the 10-year-old company was never going to be judged on whether shares jumped 30%, which is the usual benchmark for a triumphant IPO. The modest moves could be seen as a sign that London-based Spotify got its wish to avoid a tumultuous debut.

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