Public Equity
Our principals have a depth of experience in managing public listings in London, Luxembourg and Singapore on behalf of our clients . We have arranged a series of GDR listings on the Luxembourg and Singapore Stock Exchanges on behalf of Indian companies across a wide range of industry sectors and can take a company through the listing and issuance process on these exchanges in approximately six weeks. The same is achievable in relation to Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (“FCCB”) on those exchanges.
Whilst a listing on the London Stock Exchange (“LSE”) takes considerably longer, those companies who are successful in doing so gain access to wider international pools of liquidity, and high quality paper with which to make acquisitions. In return such companies must conform to high levels of regulation. Although listing criteria are less onerous for the Alternative Investment Market (“AIM”), all prospective AIM listed companies are required to appoint an LSE registered Nominated Advisor (“Nomad”). The appointed Nomad is retained annually and becomes responsible for ensuring that the company complies with the exchange’s regulatory requirements. A broker may be appointed separately in relation to placement services. Legal counsel and other parties must then also be engaged. All of this comes at a cost and in obtaining optimal terms it is crucial to understand what pricing is appropriate and to strike the right balance between quality, suitability and cost of the appointed firms.
Whilst Prospect Capital is not registered as a Nomad with the LSE, our principals have direct public company board level experience as well as substantial experience in advising on which Nomads and brokers are most suited to the sector and size of the issuer, and, crucially, in negotiating optimal fee agreements on behalf of clients. We have a clear overview of the firms offering the various listing related services and their varying strengths by sector, geography and size of transaction. In addition we bring our extensive investor relationships to bear on placement. Therefore we are well positioned to lead co-ordinate the entire IPO process on behalf of client companies which are new to public markets and have limited experience of the London listing process and regulatory environment.