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ECM Round-Up

January 2022

12 January 2022

Welcome to the CMS ECM Round-Up for January 2022.

2021 continued to see high levels of equity capital markets activity and the CMS ECM team supported our clients across a range of transactions, ranging from IPOs and secondary fundraisings to takeover offers and approaches.  Activity has not been limited to any particular sector, with IPOs for musicMagpie, ActiveOps and Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust; secondary fundraisings for LondonMetric Property, Big Yellow and Hollywood Bowl, and listed funds Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund and Supermarket Income REIT; and takeover offers for Blue Prism, RDI REIT and Telit Communications.

After the initial shockwave from the impact of the Covid pandemic in 2020, equity capital markets reacted with a surge of secondary raisings in 2020 with the IPO market kicking off following the HUT Group IPO in the second half of 2020.  This momentum continued into 2021 with the IPO market seeing some 60 Main Market IPOs and 66 AIM IPOs, compared to 34 and 29 in 2020 (which was comparatively better to 2019, the last year pre-pandemic which saw only 46 IPOs across both markets).  Despite seeing some impressive IPOs, the volumes raised for listed companies dropped on the Main Market from 2020 highs of some £29bn for listed companies to £19bn – however, AIM saw a remarkable comeback with secondary issues raising £6.8bn against £5.27bn in 2020 and AIM IPOs raising £1.85bn against a mere £489m in 2020 (about the same amount as 2019).

Despite reports at the end of 2021 of investor “indigestion” and “fatigue”, the outlook for 2022 looks buoyant, with a healthy pipeline of new issues, both IPOs and secondary fundraisings, looking to come to market.  With one of the largest ECM teams in the UK, we look forward to helping existing and new clients with their equity capital markets transactions in the coming weeks and months.

For further information on the CMS Equity Capital Markets team and how we can help you, please contact your usual CMS contact or me.

Highlights for 2021 include

  • ActiveOps on a £120m AIM IPO. 
  • Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust on a £150m Main Market IPO.
  • Arecor Therapeutics on a £20m AIM IPO. 
  • Benchmark Capital on a £21m placing and subscription.    
  • Big Yellow Group on a £100m placing.    
  • Blue Prism Group on a £1.2bn recommended offer made by funds managed by US private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, and a competing bid by SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc.
  • Capital & Regional on a £30m underwritten open offer.    
  • Hollywood Bowl Group on a £30m cash-box placing (ABB).    
  • LondonMetric Property on a £175m placing and offer to retail investors.
  • Longboat Energy on a £35m reverse acquisition of three farm-in transactions and associated fundraise.
  • Legal & General on a £352m IPO of Pod Point.
  • Mercantile Ports & Logistics on a £10.1m placing.    
  • musicMagpie on a £208m AIM IPO.
  • NetEase on a $261m IPO of Devolver.
  • Polarean Imaging on a £27m placing, subscription and open offer.
  • RDI REIT on a £468m recommended takeover by funds managed by US private equity firm, Starwood Capital. 
  • Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund on a £110m placing.
  • SigmaRoc on a £260m placing (ABB) to part fund a US$470m acquisition.
  • Smart Metering Systems on a £175m placing.    
  • Supermarket Income REIT on a £100m placing under a placing programme, and additional offer for subscription.
  • Telit Communications on a £306.9m recommended cash offer made by funds managed by DBAY Advisors Limited.
  • The Property Franchise Group on a £25.3m recommended takeover of Hunters Property. 
  • Tortilla Mexican Grill on a £70m AIM IPO. 
  • Tronox Holdings on a US$145m acquisition of minority shareholding and subsequent US$400m sale of shares.
  • XLMedia on a £27m placing, subscription and open offer. 
  • Warehouse REIT on a £45.9m placing.  
  • Windward on a £126.5m AIM IPO.