Reed Smith has advised pensions actuarial, consulting and administration business Xafinity plc (“Xafinity”) on its successful £190.3 million IPO on the premium listing segment of the main market of the London Stock Exchange and related institutional placing of new and existing shares which raised proceeds of £176.6 million. Admission of Xafinity’s ordinary shares to trading on the London Stock Exchange took place at 8.00 a.m. this morning.
Reed Smith also advised its long-standing private equity client CBPE Capital (“CBPE”) on the transaction, enabling CBPE to successfully exit its significant investment in Xafinity via the institutional placing, realising a return of over four times invested capital for investors.
The transaction was led out of London by corporate partner Philip Taylor, and required cross-practice expertise across the firm’s corporate, banking, financial regulatory, tax and employment teams. Other members of the team included corporate associates Rob Lowe and Ravi Pattani, and partner Nick Williams and associate Victoria Gillam from the banking team who advised the Company on its entry into new banking facilities and repayment of existing facilities upon IPO.
Reed Smith advised CBPE on its acquisition of Xafinity in 2013. The firm recently acted for CBPE on it investment into SafeChem Europe.
Commenting on the IPO, Philip Taylor said:
“We are very pleased to have advised on this IPO for our long-standing clients Xafinity and CBPE Capital. The listing will not only enable Xafinity to raise its profile further among clients and provide it with access to the capital markets to aid future growth if required, but also enables CBPE to make a full and successful exit from its investment. Our team was delighted to work on this matter which represented the first premium main market IPO of 2017.”
Travers Smith LLP advised Deloitte Corporate Finance and Zeus Capital Limited on the transaction. Management were advised by Macfarlanes LLP.
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