Beauty firm and Princes bring rare boost to London Stock Exchange

London's stock market was given a boost yesterday as an LED face mask maker listed its shares on the same day the maker of the tinned fish brand Princes and Napolina tomatoes confirmed plans to do the same.

- Sarah Butler

Laurence Newman, the co-founder of the Cheshire-headquartered The Beauty Tech Group, which owns the beauty-gadget brands CurrentBody, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser, said he was proud to choose London for the firm's £300m initial public offering. “I'm also hoping this will be the start of other people coming to the market,” he told the news agency PA.

“I started in the northwest of England - I built a British business and made it into an international business ... it was my decision to support the London market,” he said.

The £2.1bn-turnover Princes Group, which is owned by the Italian family firm Newlat (rebranded as NewPrinces) but is based in Liverpool, where it was founded 150 years ago, also confirmed it was hoping to join the UK market.