IPO market view
It’s common knowledge that the UK market for IPOs has been difficult in 2022, but that hasn’t stopped Computershare from continuing to assist companies, large and small, with their listings.
This past summer we’ve been proud to work with Woodside Energy Group plc on its admission to the premium segment of the London stock exchange, with a valuation of £36bn. It’s great to see the share price continue to rise in the choppy markets.
As a governance led registrar, we have been supporting an increasing number of our clients with practical hands-on solutions for both their pre and post IPO governance needs, as well as their traditional registry requirements. We’ve seen a huge growth and range in demand from main market companies such as Eurowag through to those listing on AIM and the Aquis exchange such as Visum Technologies.
We’re also helping non-UK companies listing in the UK, and UK companies listing in other jurisdictions — such as the complex de-SPAC and business combination of Gores Guggenheim with Polestar, resulting in the $20bn UK holding co listing on Nasdaq which included 6 different stock types, and required meticulous project management of numerous teams in the UK and US.
Please do contact us if you have a client needing Company Secretary or wider governance needs.
Next to our IPO and governance work, Computershare has been supporting our clients with key corporate events which include:
- Following a protracted period awaiting the receipt of certain antitrust and foreign investment approvals, the £6.3 bn takeover of Meggitt plc by Parker-Hannifin Corporation of the U.S. was finally approved and the cash consideration issued to shareholders in September.
- Schroders reorganised their share capital and voting structure by enfranchising their Non-Voting Shareholders, carrying out an associated Compensatory Bonus Issue for its Ordinary Shareholders and then subdividing the entire share capital to increase liquidity of the shares in the market.
Finally, our industry and markets team have welcomed the publication of Mark Austin’s Secondary Capital Raising report as well as the UK Government’s move to introduce dematerialisation of share certificates for UK PLCs, and we’re pleased to share our insights later in this bulletin.
We’re planning for a busy 2023 and look forward to sharing more success stories and plans in the 2022 Computershare Yearly Review, coming in January.
Our expert team
We have supported hundreds of IPOs and have a global reputation for excellence. That’s because whilst the processes can have some similarities, we understand that every company is unique. We take time to think about what would work best for each client throughout the IPO process and beyond. Each client is also assigned a relationship manager to build client knowledge, history and support.
