Leicester Tigers announced earlier this week it was planning take a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Channel Islands exchange next year.
Yesterday, debt-ridden Jessops, the UK's largest photography chain, confirmed it was leaving the Stock Market after completing a rescue deal with its bank.
What many people might not know is that Tigers' shares are already being traded. But the club's directors believe a flotation will see the shares - currently priced at £1.75 each - soar in value.
This is because a listing on the Stock Market will see them become more easily available to a wider number of investors.
Currently, those wanting to buy or sell the shares have to find a stockbroker who can get hold of them or a buyer, which can take up to a month. It is rather like selling 100 of the latest DVD releases on Amazon instead of hawking them around various pubs. They are likely to be sold more quickly and at a higher price, because you have a ready-made market.
The decision by Jessops, based in Braunstone Frith, to go back into private ownership had been widely expected. Just under half of the firm will be owned by HSBC, 33% will be controlled by the group's pension trustee and the remainder will be owned by an employee trust fund.
The camera chain's five years as a Stock Market-listed company has been nothing short of a nightmare. It floated just as the competition from supermarkets, internet retailers and mobile cameras increased. Valued at £160m in 2004, investors were told yesterday their shares were worth a total of just £100,000.
Tigers, which has 10,000 shareholders, should be valued at above £10m when it floats. But it won't be the experience of Jessops which concerns supporters, but the problems encountered by neighbour Leicester City after it floated on the Stock Market in 1997. A boardroom power battle and an agonising collapse into administration were all played out very publicly because of the need to keep the market up to speed with goings on behind the scenes. But the Tigers board is adamant nothing like that could happen at the club because its management culture is completely different.
Jessops and Leicester City are connected through the camera chain's sponsorship of the football club's shirts. But the other interesting link is the fact that both Jessops and Leicester City spent five years listed on the Stock Market, and City exited when it went into administration in October 2002, while Jessops confirmed it was leaving the market just two days before October.
Spookily, both Jessops and Leicester City also floated in October.
It may be likely the Tigers' board won't be pencilling in a stock exchange launch in a month starting with the letter 'O'.
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