DLA and Travers take vets to AIM

DLA Piper and Travers Smith have played major roles in the AIM listing of veterinary service provider CVS Group, which entered the junior market via a private equity exit.

A Travers Smith team led by corporate finance head Spencer Summerfield and associate Toby Newman acted for the nominated adviser to the deal, Panmure Gordon & Co.

DLA Piper’s EMEA capital markets group head Alex Tamlyn led the team acting for the company alongside corporate partner Polly Owen and associate Juan Perez-Tejedor.

Tamlyn said: “We started work on this in May as there was a prefloat organisation to put in place first. This was an exit for Sovereign Capital, which had been invested in the company for around eight years. the point of the reorganisation was to make sure we would be able to do the IPO as we had to make sure the company could make the payments to exit Sovereign.”

Sovereign did not seek legal advice on the exit as the disposal was planned at the time the investment was made. Tamlyn said: “If the investment is crafted well the details are set in stone. It is just a question of implementing it.”

CVS was established in August 1999, with financial backing from Sovereign, to acquire and operate veterinary practices that were well established within their local community and had a reputation for high quality service.

On admission to AIM the company raised £92.7m.