Law firm DWF raises £95m through IPO

The Manchester-headquartered company said it will issue 61.5m new shares to raise £75m for the business and sell shareholders 16.6m existing shares for an extra £20.3m, both at the price of 122p per share. At the IPO price, this indicated an debut market capitalisation of around £366m.

With a free float of 25.7% of the total shares, conditional trading started on Monday with unconditional dealing beginning on Friday.

Andrew Leaitherland, chief executive of DWF, said: "We are delighted today to be announcing our successful IPO as DWF becomes the first main market premium listed legal business. DWF and its partner group see this as the start of the next phase of DWF's evolution and we are very pleased by the support shown by our new investors. We see substantial, long-term opportunity, to build on our strong track record and further develop and grow our complex, managed and connected services capabilities, while attracting and retaining the best talent, investing in technology and carrying out targeted M&A."

The company said that the funds will used the cash to repay some of its debt and invest in new IT systems, adding that it could also contribute towards acquisitions.

With regard to the placing, DWF has engaged Stifel Nicolaus Europe and Jefferies International to act as joint global coordinators and Zeus Capital to act as lead manager.

"I would also like to thank our dedicated and hardworking employees, who have been central to our success. The IPO is only the start and I am confident in DWF's strong fundamentals and continued growth prospects as a listed company," said Leaitherland.