Oxford Nanopore prices IPO to give valuation of up to $4.77 billion - bookrunner

LONDON (Reuters) -The initial public offering for Oxford Nanopore, a provider of rapid COVID-19 tests to Britain's national health services, will have an indicative price of 375 to 450 pence per share, a bookrunner said on Thursday.

The offer will total 523 million pounds ($713.16 million) to 547 million pounds, giving the life sciences company an implied market capitalisation of 3 billion to 3.5 billion pounds , the bookrunner said.

Earlier this month, U.S. tech company Oracle said it has committed to buying 150 million pounds of new shares at Nanopore's upcoming IPO in London.

A successful float would be a major coup for the London Stock Exchange as most British pharma and life science companies tend to list on New York's Nasdaq, home to the world's biggestdrugmakers. The company, which counts IP Group and Singapore's Temasekamong its shareholders, provides DNA/RNA sequencing technologyfor sectors such as biomedical, infectious diseases and food andagriculture. Bank of America, Citi and JPMorgan areglobal coordinators for the float.

($1 = 0.7334 pounds)

($1 = 0.7333 pounds)

(Reporting by Huw JonesEditing by Rachel Armstrong)