Number crunching: Numis Securities

Eversheds, Nabarro, Norton Rose and Travers Smith are its most hired firms for IPOs and secondary offerings worth £20m or more where it was the only institution on the deal, according to data from corporate information provider Perfect Information.

Other firms, notably Allen & Overy (A&O), Mayer Brown and Simmons & Simmons, won work on deals where Numis acted with other banks.

Numis sees Simmons as its main adviser. Mayer Brown, Nabarro, Norton Rose and Travers have seen some work, with Linklaters and Eversheds also gaining to a lesser extent.

Numis was chosen for analysis as a mid-market London broker managing listings towards the middle end of the main market and on AIM. It was thought that the size of its deals meant there would be just one bank (and its single law firm) on each deal, making relationships easier to spot than with higher-end mandates.

This turned out to be largely true, although there was a number of deals going back to 2008 (our data period) where a number of banks were involved and outside lawyers were instructed by other parties and not by Numis.

The broker worked with A&O on Betfair’s IPO in September 2010, but here Numis was co-lead manager alongside Barclays Capital as part of a larger syndicate that included joint global coordinators Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Numis was also part of a consortium of banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Cazenove and UBS, on the June 2010 IPO of Ocado, which appears in Perfect Information’s data as three deals due to the separate stages involved. The consortium hired A&O on this occasion too.

The broker hired Latham & Watkins associate Michael Lee as general counsel in January to replace Melissa Bennett, who moved to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but this appears to have had only a minimal effect on its law firm relationships. Lee worked with Linklaters relationship partner John Lane in a former role at the magic circle firm, but Numis is not a new client for Linklaters.

Ties with Nabarro were strengthened through relationship partner Alasdair Steele. Steele was the second partner on the Numis account at Travers, alongside Andrew Gillen, who had links to a former head of corporate finance at the bank. Steele took Numis as a client to Nabarro in 2008, although the firm had also carried out work for the broker through partner Iain Newman.

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Key partner: Alasdair Steele, Nabarro

Nabarro partner Alasdair Steele is one of Numis’s longest-standing outside advisers on equity capital markets deals where it has acted as broker. The relationship dates back to his time at Travers Smith, where he was the number two partner on the account in the mid-2000s. Partner Andrew Gillen managed the relationship on deals such as the IPO of The Lawyer’s parent company Centaur Holdings on AIM in 2004.

Steele joined Nabarro in 2008, taking Numis contacts with him, and earlier this year advised the bank on Eredene Capital’s £30m placing to raise capital on AIM.

Mid-market equity capital markets brokers tend to spread their mandates quite evenly, so it is hardly surprising that no single firm stands out on inspection of City investment bank Numis Securities’ recent deal list.

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Top five deals

1. Allen & Overy partner Louise Wolfson advised Numis, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Cazenove and UBS on Ocado’s £369m IPO in June 2010
2. Nabarro partner Alasdair Steele advised Numis as sponsor, underwriter and joint financial adviser on Beazley Group’s £157.4m placing and rights issue in February 2009
3. Linklaters partner John Lane acted for Numis on an £80.7m firm placing and open offer by Lookers in June 2009
4. Norton Rose partners Mike Newell and Cathy Pitt advised Numis on CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities’ Specialist Fund Market IPO in 2010
5. Mayer Brown partner Kate Ball-Dodd advised Numis on JJB Sports’ AIM listing and fundraising in 2011, after Ashurst advised on a £100m main market offer in 2009

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64
UK £20m-plus equity capital markets deals Numis has advised on since 2008