HMV float lifts flagging IPO sector
Four firms set to benefit from HMV's privatisation as £600m deal revives quiet London IPO market
April 24, 2002 at 08:03 PM
2 minute read
A quartet of firms are set to benefit from HMV Group's proposed flotation, after the UK music retailer this month unveiled plans to bring its flotation forward to May.
The offering, one of the few major IPOs to hit the London market over the past 12 months, is expected to raise £600m, valuing the company at £1bn.
Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw partner Stephanie Bates is leading the team advising HMV.
HMV was a client of Rowe & Maw before the firm's merger with Chicago's Mayer Brown & Platt. Baits said the HMV float was the first London-listed IPO the new firm had worked on since the February merger.
HMV's owners, the private equity house Advent and Thorn EMI, are being advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp partner Jan Sanders and Robert Allen of Denton Wilde Sapte respectively.
Advent, which currently owns 40.4% of HMV, took a stake in the business in 1998.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, meanwhile, is advising joint co-ordinators and book runners UBS Warburg and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.
Freshfields' co-head of securities Tim Jones said that while there were a lot of IPOs in the London pipeline, the firm was nevertheless grateful for the chance to "get back into full swing".
"This is not dotcom stuff," he added. "HMV is well-established and well-known and there is nothing speculative here, so there is a high degree of certainty that the float will happen. The market is reviving now and over the next few months we expect to see a lot of activity in the retail sector in particular."
While HMV had originally proposed the float for the end of June, the group is now moving swiftly on the back of continued strong retail spending and this year's rally in share prices.
Proceeds from the float will be used to reduce debt inherited at the time of the highly leveraged £803m buy-out four years ago.
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