The corporate team from Burges Salmon has advised retail asset manager Premier Asset Management Group PLC on the admission of its shares to trading on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange plc.
Premier Asset Management announced its initial public offering (IPO) on 4 October 2016 by way of a placing of new and existing ordinary shares at 132 pence per share, to raise gross proceeds of approximately £63.7 million (to be used to repay principal and accrued dividend on preference shares and to allow for a partial exit for certain of the company's shareholders who are selling shares in the placing). The shares were admitted to trading on 7 October, seeing a market capitalisation of the company of approximately £140 million.
Premier Asset Management is a fast-growing UK retail asset management group with a focus on delivering good investment outcomes for investors through relevant products and active management across its range of investment strategies, which include multi-asset, equity and absolute return funds.
Premier has a particular focus on multi-asset and income investment management, which addresses strong retail investor demand in these sectors. The company has a significant presence as a multi-asset fund manager in the UK retail funds market based on net sales and assets under management.
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited is the nominated adviser to Premier and, trading as Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, is joint bookrunner along with Numis Securities Limited; the banks were advised by Nabarro LLP. KPMG LLP was the reporting accountant.
Premier Asset Management Chief Executive Mike O'Shea commented: "We have worked closely with Chris and the Burges Salmon team for over 10 years. The team has genuine knowledge of the funds sector and our business and their advice, experience and commercial guidance has been essential in helping us to navigate our way through the IPO, which has been a complex process. They bring a real team ethos to their work and it has been a pleasure to work with them."
The Burges Salmon team, led by partner from Corporate team and assisted by Emma Sorrell (Senior Associate), Mark Cook (Associate) and Chris Palmer (Solicitor) advised Premier Asset Management on all legal aspects of the IPO.
Emma said: “Premier is a long-standing client of the firm and we have been acting for them for over 10 years on a variety of matters. It is a leading provider in this market and we are very pleased to have been able to advise Premier on its return to wider public ownership, which is particularly positive in light of the UK’s recent referendum decision and current economic uncertainty."