Liberum acts as Financial Adviser and Sole Bookrunner on the £178m IPO of Castelnau Group Limited
We are pleased to announce that Liberum has successfully raised £53.1 million in connection with the £177.6 million IPO of Castelnau Group Limited (“Castelnau” or the “Company”), whose shares have been admitted to trading on the SFS today.
Castelnau is a Guernsey incorporated closed-ended fund, with an investment objective to compound shareholder’s capital at a higher rate of return than the FTSE All Share Total Return Index over the long term.
The Company’s investment manager, Phoenix Asset Management Partners, headed up by Gary Channon, manages approximately £1.3 billion across three funds, including Aurora Investment Trust, and has been investing in UK listed equities for 23 years using a “value investing” approach to buy high-quality businesses at attractive prices.
The Company’s investment portfolio includes holdings in Dignity, Hornby, Stanley Gibbons and WLS International (a holding company best known for its wedding gift list companies), with these assets forming part of a seed portfolio that was acquired on admission for shares in the Company.
The successful raise of approximately £53.1 million was a combination of placing proceeds of £49.1 million and an offer for subscription which raised £3.9m. The placing included a cornerstone investment of £25 million from renowned British entrepreneur and innovator, Sir Peter Wood. Sir Peter is a founder of, and investor in, a number of disruptive brands and businesses including Direct Line Insurance and Gocompare.com.
The fundraising attracted support from wealth managers, high net worth individuals and professional investors and the target raise was exceeded. The net proceeds of the fundraising will be used by Castelnau to acquire further investments in line with its investment objective.
Liberum acted as Financial Adviser and Sole Bookrunner on the IPO, and is retained as Sole Broker to the Group following admission.
Liberum Team
Board – Shane Le Prevost
Investment Banking – Chris Clarke, Darren Vickers, Owen Matthews, Will King, Ant Schia
Sales – Andrew Davies, James Shields, Lynsey Cox, Chris Cooper, Joel Knight
Trading – Mark O’Hara, Dan Harper
Research – Conor Finn, Shonil Chande
Legal – Rebecca Gordon, Alice Foster
CIR – Celia Wright
Settlements – Rob Simpson, Mark Proctor
