PwC North has advised on three listing transactions in a week that has reinforced the confidence that is currently within the market.
Ian Morrison, PwC’s Yorkshire & North East regional leader, acted as reporting accountant for Bonmarche, which announced plans to move from the Alternative Investment Market onto the stock exchange’s main list.
Arif Ahmad, PwC’s office senior partner in Leeds, was part of the team which supported On The Beach, the private equity-backed online travel agency, on its plans for an initial public offering, which was announced on Wednesday. He was also the reporting accountant on a share issue for Assura, announced yesterday.
“These are businesses with new ideas who are led by great management teams and who have already achieved significant growth,” said Mr Ahmad.
“They show that northern IPOs continue to remain resilient particularly for those companies demonstrating a strong growth trajectory and an innovative business model. And there is still plenty of appetite in the market from investors looking to back strong teams and businesses in the region.”
***
DLA Piper has advised Hibernia Networks, a provider of high speed global telecommunications services, on the development of the Hibernia Express submarine cable system.
The first of its kind, the 4,600 km cable will provide the lowest-latency fibre-optic path between New York and London, connecting Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Brean, England and Cork, Ireland.
Mike Conradi, Telecoms partner at DLA Piper, said: “The Atlantic is the busiest connectivity corridor in the world with data traffic growing 40% a year. This new cable also opens up the possibility of further routes being built on the basis of reducing latency – an entirely new prospect for the industry.”
The DLA Piper real estate team was led from Sheffield by senior associate Ben Rogers with Sheffield Managing Partner Petra Billing and chartered legal executive Michelle Eyre assisting on land matters. Telecoms partner Mike Conradi led on the commercial contract aspects.
***
Schofield Sweeney has extended its expertise in finance and restructuring with the appointment of Richard Fergusson as a partner.
Mr Fergusson, who joins from hlw Keeble Hawson, is one of five new faces at the firm. Ruth Maltby, a newly qualified solicitor has joined the commercial property team, while legal apprentice Lois Smith and trainees Junaid Saleem and Abigail Falshaw have also joined the firm.
Chris Schofield, chairman of Schofield Sweeney said: “Our ethos is to provide clear and pragmatic advice to companies and entrepreneurs so we feel Richard will fit in well with our approach. We have expanded our finance and restructuring team over the past few years having seen clients appreciate the positive influence it can bring and we are confident that Richard will enhance and help further develop this.”
