We have a leading international practice in equity capital markets, with extensive experience of advising on IPOs, rights issues and other pre-emptive offers, placings, issues of convertible and exchangeable securities, equity derivatives, hedging and stabilisation of equity and equity-related products.

Our expertise covers many different sectors, including financial services, AI, technology, semiconductor, aerospace and defence, consumer goods, media, mining, energy, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and healthcare, real estate, retail, automotive, telecoms and infrastructure.

In the UK, we act primarily for issuers on their IPOs and secondary raises on the London Stock Exchange. In Hong Kong and Asia, we act for both issuers and sponsors on global offerings and dual primary listings.

Key experience

IPOs, demergers, and admissions

We advised Arm Holdings on the UK aspects of its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market

We advised Oxford Nanopore Technologies on its initial public offering and admission to trading of its ordinary shares onto the standard listing segment of the London Stock Exchange, with an offer size of approximately £524m (based on an offer price of 425 pence per share) and a market capitalisation of £3.4 billion at the start of conditional tradingWatches of Switzerland

We advised Watches of Switzerland and its principal shareholder (investment funds managed by Apollo) on its UK Main Market IPO.

We advised Prudential and M&G on the demerger of M&G by way of a dividend in specie. The transaction was one of the largest and most complex demergers undertaken in the UK, and the M&G prospectus was one of the first to be published under the new Prospectus Regulation. We also advised Prudential on the demerger of its US business, Jackson Financial Inc, and its group, from Prudential, resulting in two separately listed companies.

We advised on the separation of its Consumer Healthcare business to form Haleon plc, an independent company to be listed on the LSE and NYSE.

We advised ASOS on its move from AIM to the London Stock Exchange Main Market in 2022 and its equity raises in 2020 and 2023.

We advised on the Hong Kong and US laws aspects of the US$740 million global offering and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing of SenseTime Group. CICC, Haitong International and HSBC acted as joint sponsors, as well as the joint global coordinators, the joint bookrunners and the underwriters.

We advised on the Hong Kong and US law aspects of the US$ 604 million global offering and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing of Yidu Tech. Goldman Sachs and CICC acted as the joint sponsors, and Goldman Sachs, CICC and Citi acted as the joint global coordinators.

We advised Kunshan Dongwei Technology, the largest manufacturer of printed circuit board electroplating equipment in the world in terms of revenue in 2022, on its US$104.8 million global offering and listing of Global Depositary Receipts on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

We advised Dekon Group on the Hong Kong and US law aspects of its US$ 127 million global offering and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing.

We advised China Reinsurance Group on the Hong Kong and US law aspects of its US$ 2 billion global offering and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing. This was the first listing in Hong Kong by a reinsurance company and one of the largest IPOs in Hong Kong.

UK Secondary Capital Raises

We advised Prudential on its equity raise of US$2.4 billion on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This was the first ever post-IPO follow-on equity offering conducted by a Hong Kong listed company to retail public investors.

Saughter and May advised Synthomer on its rights issue to raise gross proceeds of approximately £276 million. The purpose of the rights issue was to support a reduction of group leverage and provide stronger foundations to focus on delivering Synthomer’s speciality solutions strategy.

We advised Accsys on its placing and issuance of convertible loan notes (the Capital Raise), along with an extension of its debt facilities with ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

We advised SMIC on the first RMB share issue by a Hong Kong listed non-PRC issuer on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, raising approximately US$7.7 billion.

We advised International Consolidated Airlines Group on its €2.75 billion rights issue.

We advised Rolls-Royce on its £5 billion recapitalisation package, which included a fully underwritten rights issue to raise approximately £2 billion and a bond offering to raise £1 billion.

We advised Alibaba Health on its US$1.29 billion placing of new shares under a general mandate to professional, institutional, and/or individual investors.