Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and White & Case have won places advising on Alfa Financial Software’s planned float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which is expected to value the company at more than £800m.
The float, which specialises in software for the asset finance industry, will be the largest UK tech listing in the past two years. Alfa’s clients include Bank of America, Barclays and Mercedes-Benz.
Alfa enlisted White & Case with advice from recent hire Jonathan Parry, alongside partners Inigo Esteve and Laura Sizemore.
Freshfields is advising the underwriters Barclays and Numis with a team including partners Mark Austin and Doug Smith.
It has been a subdued 12 months for listings in the London market although in November last year it emerged Freshfields and Linklaters were advising on medical products company ConvaTec’s $1.8bn initial public offering (IPO). The global medical products and technologies company raised around £1.5bn, marking the largest European healthcare IPO for more than 20 years.
Freshfields corporate partner Chris Mort led for ConvaTec, which announced its intention to float on the LSE by early November.
Linklaters acted for the banks on the deal, with corporate partners James Wootton, Dan Schuster-Woldan and Mike Bienenfeld leading the team. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and UBS Investment Bank are the global co-ordinators on the IPO, while Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Cazenove are joint bookrunners.
Herbert Smith Freehills is advising Telefónica on the planned IPO of its UK business O2, with the Spanish telecoms giant aiming to sell off between 25% and 49% of the business. An estimated £500m IPO for financial software company Misys is still underway, with Freshfields leading for the company on the float.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
