Reed Smith guides Napo through first-ever US primary listing on LSE

Reed Smith guides Napo through first-ever US primary listing on LSE" />With a transatlantic merger with Richards Butler looming on the horizon, Reed Smith has bagged a lead role on the first-ever primary listing of a US company on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Partners Donald Reinke in San Francisco and Giles Beale in London advised life sciences company Napo Pharmaceuticals on its £36m listing.

Beale said Napo was a longstanding client of the firm's life sciences practice on the West Coast. He said the firm's experience of advising US companies on AIM was also one of the reasons why the firm was picked.

In the past Reed Smith has advised AIM sponsor Canaccord Adams and worked on the AIM listings of US companies Protonex and Plant Health Care.

But Napo wanted access to a wider investment base in Europe so saw a full LSE listing as the best option, despite the more rigorous entry criteria.

Beale said: "Continental investors have a greater interest in fully listed companies. They're subject to a greater degree of regulation and are typically viewed as adhering to higher standards of corporate governance than companies listed on AIM."

Beale said he expected more US healthcare and life sciences companies to list on the LSE in the future to take advantage of capital-raising opportunities. Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham advised the sponsor and underwriter, Nomura Code Securities.