Leading international law firm Norton Rose is acting for house builder Crest Nicholson, which today announced its highly anticipated IPO and proposed listing on the Premium Segment of the London Stock Exchange.
The first major IPO of a UK domestic company in 2013 will value Crest Nicholson at approximately £553 million. The offer contains both a primary tranche raising £59 million for the company and a secondary offering raising £169 million through the sale by institutional shareholders including Vardé and Deutsche Bank and management.
Crest Nicholson, which had previously been listed before being taken private at the height of the property boom in 2007, underwent debt restructurings in 2009 and 2011 which led to it becoming owned by its lending banks. The listing was preceded by a debt refinancing with new banking facilities jointly arranged by Barclays and HSBC. The listing will allow the company to return to the public markets.
The offer was made by way of institutional placing in the UK, Europe and Canada and in the US. Barclays and HSBC acted as joint sponsors and joint global co-ordinators and Numis acted as Lead Manager. Lazards acted as financial adviser to Crest Nicholson.
Corporate partner Mark Lloyd Williams of Norton Rose said:
“We are delighted to have been chosen by the management of Crest Nicholson to assist them in their return to the listed arena. This flotation has been like a litmus test for all those watching to see if the UK equity markets have reopened for business. The quality of the Company and its management is demonstrated by its success in achieving such a strong investor reaction.”
Partners Mark Lloyd Williams and Tom Vita led the Norton Rose Corporate team which also included Sarah McKellar who acted as principal assistant with Amy Reed, Robert Hatton, Jaycen Liao, Marina Petrova, Daniel Chaney, Jessica Blanchett and James Chester-Martin.
The Norton Rose team also included partner Monique Fry with Liron Cohen (Incentives) and partner David Hawkins alongside Tom Taylor, Simon Bailey, Katie Knowles and Oliver King (Real Estate), partner Caroline May (Environmental), partner Nigel Hewitson (Planning), Of Counsel Nick Howard alongside Ben Wright (Employment), partner Lucy Wolley Dod with Sarah Cullen, Jonathan Ng (Banking) and consultant John Challoner alongside Julia Lloyd (Tax).
Caroline May is the Norton Rose, Crest Nicholson relationship partner.
Clifford Chance acted for the Global Coordinators and Ashursts and Bingham acted for the institutional selling shareholders.
Norton Rose has also recently acted on a number of other major IPOs including Starwood on its £228 million real estate debt fund and for the joint bookrunners in Redefine’s £127m secondary offering and for Picton on its refinancing and roll over offer of ZDPs.
