Mills & Reeve takes Ubisense Group through its Aim debut

Mills & Reeve helped Ubisense, which provides location solutions such as tracking devices for companies including Airbus, Aston Martin and BMW, raise £8.6m from institutional investors, giving the company a market capitalisation of close to £40m when it was admitted to Aim on 22 June. Corporate partners Stephen Hamilton and Claire Clarke led Mills & Reeve’s team.

Dorsey & Whitney, led by corporate partner Frances Doherty, advised nominated adviser and broker Canaccord Genuity on the deal.

Mills & Reeve has been advising Ubisense since August 2010, when the firm won a competitive tender against rivals including Eversheds and Taylor ­Wessing.
“They were impressed by our City-firm quality,” said Hamilton. “A lot of our partners are ex-City lawyers, but our prices aren’t City prices.”

Mills & Reeve advised Ubisense on its pre-IPO funding round in November 2010 and has also been doing routine IP and employment work for the company.

Aim listings, especially in the technology sector, have been few and far between in the past year.

“There haven’t been that many around,” said Hamilton. “Ubisense’s IPO is only one of two instances of ­technology companies ­listing in the past 12 to 18 months. But there’s a strong story with Ubisense: the company is revenue-­generating so investors can see its prospects. It’s been a real growth story over the past few years.”