The CMS ECM Market Review is a summary of recent events in some of the key sectors that we focus on.
It is now just over a year since the merger which created CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang and its benefits were clear when we were ranked as the most active legal adviser on IPOs, second most active overall and most active on AIM in the Perfect Information ECMi Report 2017. In its latest research, The Lawyer ranked CMS joint first, alongside Slaughter and May, by number of FTSE 100 clients based on deal, litigation and panel win data from the last 18 months. With our enlarged reach across core sectors, we have asked our expert teams to share their views on what is happening across these sectors.
At a more macro level, the first few months of 2018 have seen something of a slowdown in the market compared to the early part of 2017. Despite Q4 2017 seeing more pulled IPOs than during the rest of the year, in a sign of market indigestion, it still turned out to be an active quarter with more IPOs than during the same period in 2016 (though not quite matching Q2 2017's high). Q1 generally sees lower levels of activity, and this has again been the case, with Q1 2018 activity representing around 40% of total activity during the rolling six month period. As a result of generally softer market conditions, market volatility in late February, and the impact of the main corporate reporting season in March, market participants are reporting a number of IPOs and secondary issues which have seen timetables slip in the hope of impacting during more receptive market conditions later in the year. That said, Q2 has seen the launch of a number of sizeable secondaries. On a more positive note, M&A activity continues to remain strong, despite the weighing threats of Brexit and trade wars.
At a sectoral level, activity has been (and continues to be) highest in financials and listed funds, with a relatively evenly balanced spread across other sectors from oil & gas and tech, to leisure and retail. This has been reflected in the activity we have seen across the CMS team, where we have been advising on deals including Aquis Exchange's IPO, Galliford Try's £150m rights issue, ITE Group's £300m rights issue and acquisition of Ascential’s exhibitions business, Mirriad's £63m IPO, PHP's £115m placing and open offer, and Smart Metering Systems' £150m placing.
In the attached publication, we share our views on the following sectors:
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Financial Institutions
- Hotels & Leisure
- Life Sciences & Healthcare
- Listed Funds
- Media
- Real Estate
We hope you find this publication useful and welcome any feedback. If you wish to discuss any of its contents, please feel free to contact your usual CMS contacts or any of those listed in these publications.
Social Media cookies collect information about you sharing information from our website via social media tools, or analytics to understand your browsing between social media tools or our Social Media campaigns and our own websites. We do this to optimise the mix of channels to provide you with our content. Details concerning the tools in use are in our privacy policy.