It is the second coming for business services company Regus and Slaughter and May. The whole IPO team has hooked up again a year after Regus’ 1999 London Stock Exchange (LSE) float was cobbled together at the very last minute. This time round, the announcement has been made, and trading is expected to begin this week, with the prospectus valuing the company at between £1.2bn and £1.6bn.
The difference this time round is the Nasdaq listing – the previous float was only going to be on the LSE. According to the official line, the IPO was shelved because Regus wanted, at the last minute, to bulk up its US presence. As the US listing suggests, there has been a degree of success to this strategy.
What is not different this time round is the team of issuer, bank and firms. Indeed, here are the usual suspects for high-profile global flotations. Slaughters is working alongside US best friend Davis Polk and Freshfields, which is advising Merrill Lynch, is using its US capability to provide advice for both the LSE and Nasdaq listings.
