Aussie law firm listed today; 8m shares traded

Australian firm Slater & Gordon became the world's first law firm to float on a stock exchange today.

8,226,649 shares were traded with an opening price of A$1.32, compared with the issue price of A$1, and a closing price of A$1.4.

A week before the IPO some A$20m (£8.26m) of the shares had already been snapped up by institutional investors.

Half of the money raised from the float (A$17.3m/£7.15m) is set to be allocated to seven vendor shareholders, who will own 48.8 per cent of the new company after the float.

The groundbreaking deal follows a change in the law in Australia that will allow local lawyers to raise funds and allow non-lawyer investors, a move similar to the UK's Legal Services Act.