The UK financial services group, Tungsten Corporation, has been allowed to trade on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Dealings in the company’s ordinary shares will trade under the ticker TUNG.

Tungsten’s strategy is to monetise its leading global e-invoicing network which currently processes over £100 billion ($159.9 billion) per year for some of the world’s largest companies, by offering supply chain financing through its own bank. Additionally, it will offer analytics software for invoice data and money saving purposes.

“By extending our e-invoicing and early payment services, and introducing detailed spend analytics, we plan to broaden our existing client and partner relationships and welcome new organisations to the network,” said Luke McKeever, executive director of Tungsten.

The scale of the IPO may be a sign that the market for such flotations, which has been slow since the financial crisis erupted five years ago, is reviving.

So far the firm has raised £160 million before expenses, through the placing of 71,111,111 new ordinary shares at a price of 225p per share, making it the largest trading company IPO on the AIM since 2008.

“The placing saw strong demand from institutional investors and was significantly oversubscribed,” the firm said in a statement.

Some £73 million of the proceeds from the placing will be used to fund the cash element of the acquisition of the global business to business e-invoicing network OB10 Limited, £58 - £60 million to finance the acquisition of FIBI Bank and to provide solvency capital to support the invoice discounting activities of the bank, £15 million for working capital and business development purposes and £14 million to fund acquisition and transaction fees and expenses, with a further £2 million payable at the board of Tungsten’s discretion.

Disruptive Capital Finance recommended investment opportunities for Tungsten, resulting in the acquisitions of OB10 and FIBI Bank, while Canaccord Genuity has acted as sole book-runner, financial advisor and joint broker, with Charles Stanley acting as nominated advisor and joint broker.