Aldermore has granted each of its 875 employees up to £1,000 in free shares following its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange. 

The bank, which lends to individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), offered staff £200 worth of shares for every year that they have worked at the organisation, which was founded in 2009, up to a maximum of £1,000.

Its IPO raised £226 million and values the challenger bank at around £650 million.

It sold 117.9 million shares for 192p apiece but Aldermore has since seen its share price rise to 215.25p.

Although the bank floated at a lower price than was initially planned five months ago, the successful listing made a marked difference from October 2014.

The organisation follows Virgin Money, which awarded staff a £1,000 share bonus following its IPO, and a number of banks including TSB and OneSavings Bank that have floated this year.

Phillip Monks, chief executive officer of Aldermore, said: “This is an exciting moment for Aldermore.

“The success of our IPO is a testament to the strength of our story as a legacy-free bank focused on providing banking services to SMEs and homeowners.

“I would also like to personally thank all of my colleagues for their hard work and commitment. Something all the team shares is an enormous sense of pride in how we serve our growing number of customers and the achievements we have made so far.

“To demonstrate our gratitude, and to ensure all of our team can participate in our future success, I’m delighted to announce that we will be awarding Aldermore shares of up to £1,000 in value to each of our employees.”