Four Knights shareholders to divide up £20m in float valuing firm at more than £100m
AIM listing this week set to raise proceeds of £50m in largest UK law firm IPO to date
June 26, 2018 at 05:40 AM
2 minute read
Regional law firm Knights is expecting to raise £50m from its initial public offering (IPO) this week, with the float set to give the firm a market capitalisation of more than £100m.
The target proceeds of £50m would make it the largest UK law firm listing to date, after City firm Rosenblatt raised approximately £43m in its float last month.
The firm, which will list on AIM this Friday (29 June) expects to raise the money based on the placing of 20,689,656 new ordinary shares and 13,793,104 existing ordinary shares at an issue price of 145 pence per share, giving it an anticipated market capitalisation of £103.5m.
Four shareholders will split proceeds of £20m from the float, including CEO David Beech's brother and wife – commercial operations director Mark Beech and facilities director Joanne Beech – as well as Newcastle-under-Lyme office head Karl Bamford and non-executive chairman Bal Johal.
Beech will retain a 45.5% share in the company, down from 65%, and is subject to a three-year lock-in period during which time he cannot sell his shares.
Knights intends to use the proceeds from the IPO to pay down the majority of its debt, with the remaining warchest used for law firm acquisitions. Beech told Legal Week last month that the firm is planning to make three acquisitions in the next two years following its listing.
It recently acquired Manchester's Turner Parkinson, which will hand it a seventh office, 45 fee earners and roughly £8.5m of revenue.
Knights, which previously became one of the first UK law firms to secure external investment from a private equity house when it took on investment from ex-Dragon's Den entrepreneur James Caan's investment vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw in 2012, took in revenues of £35m during the last financial year. It currently has six UK offices employing about 430 staff, including 350 fee earners.
The firm is the latest to join those making the move to list, after Gateley, which became the first UK practice to list on AIM in 2015, followed by Gordon Dadds, Keystone Law and Rosenblatt.
DWF also recently confirmed that it is considering an IPO as one of "a number of strategic options" the firm is looking at to attract investment.
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