Professionals: Panmure Gordon and Squire Patton Boggs, Eversheds and BPP Law; DAC Beachcroft

CYBER security business Osirium is planning on an IPO, with help from Northern advisory teams. 

Panmure Gordon and lawyers at Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds, as well as PR advisors Hollins Communications have been involved in the float.

The business is planning on raising £4m in a share placing, when it debuts on the London Stock Exchange in April.

Osirium intends on using the capital to grow  its team and marketing strategy.

 Osirium chief executive David Guyatt was a senior manager at Content Technologies which sold to Baltimore Technologies for $1bn in 2000.

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EVERSHEDS has launched an apprenticeship programme with BPP University Law School offering an alternative route into the legal profession.

The Trailblazer level seven solicitor apprenticeship scheme builds on the firm’s existing apprenticeship programme, Eversheds Aspire, which launched in 2015 and currently involves 15 apprentices.

The Trailblazer programme enables qualification as a solicitor following a six year programme of work-based learning, followed by a Solicitors Regulatory Authority assessment. BPP University will also have the ability to award an LLB as part of the programme.

Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes said: “I am very pleased to announce this latest evolution in our apprenticeships programme. We are committed to unlocking and developing talent at all levels at Eversheds and I look forward to welcoming more apprentices into our team as a result of this new scheme.”

The scheme is currently only offered by education providers in England and applications are open now until April 8 for the relevant Eversheds offices – including Leeds – to start in September 2016.

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LAW firm DAC Beachcroft has completed its first major piece of work for UK trampoline parks operator Oxygen Freejumping, resulting in a £10m investment to expand the business.

A DAC Beachcroft team advised Oxygen Freejumping on the fundraising that will see the company open 30 parks within the next two years, as it seeks to capitalise on the growing popularity of trampolining as a leisure activity.

The team advised in respect of an £8m debt facility from Beechbrook Capital along with a further £2m equity investment from Oxygen Freejumping’s existing shareholders.

Oxygen Freejumping’s management team includesFred Turok, the founder of LA Fitness, David Stalker, the former ukactive boss, and Steve Philpott, ex-managing director of David Lloyd Leisure. They opened their first park in West Acton last summer followed by another in Southampton in December.

This latest round of funding comes on the back of a landmark deal with Lucozade Powerleague to acquire five new sites in total, comprising 162,000 sq ft of trampoline parks throughout the UK.

The new sites, which are located in Derby, Wigan, Blackburn, North Shields and Trafford Park in Manchester, are all expected to be operational by the end of the summer.

DAC Beachcroft corporate partner James Reed, who led the team advising on the finance package, said: “We are delighted to have advised Oxygen Freejumping on this financing round, which will help this already thriving business to continue its rapid expansion. We look forward to working with the company again in the future.”

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