Knights advises on flurry of capital markets deals to defy economic gloom

Knights’ Sheffield-based corporate team has advised clients on a succession of deals that buck the trend of economic slowdown and the tough headwinds facing the capital markets.

Led by Partners Matt Ainsworth and Michael Hall, Knights has worked with three high-profile clients in recent weeks. The team supported the listing of NHS-funded surgery provider One Health Group plc on the Apex segment of the AQSE Growth Market at an initial market capitalisation of £15m.

Derek Bickerstaff, chairman of One Health, said: “We are delighted at becoming a publicly traded company by joining the AQSE Growth Market. One Health has achieved revenue growth through the use of facilities within existing private hospitals and excess capacity offered by NHS facilities and the growing awareness of its services among medical practitioners and patients in our areas of operation.”

Knights’ specialist team have also advised AIM-listed software coding training provider Northcoders on a placing that raised £2.1m to help fund the introduction of four new technology training courses. The new courses bolster Northcoders’ existing Software Development and Data Engineering courses.

The Knights team also advised Northcoders on its IPO in 2021.

Angela Williams, chair of Northcoders Group, said: “Following our successful IPO in July 2021, we have seen significant growth in demand for our technology training across the UK and this placing will further accelerate our growth, allowing us to add four new training courses which will not only increase the technology bootcamp numbers but also provide a broader service offering to our growing list of corporate clients.”

In addition, the Knights team has also supported AIM-listed specialist engineering group Pressure Technologies plc as the business raised £2.28m through a placing of new shares to support its short-term working capital requirements.

Matt Ainsworth, partner at Knights, said: “There is no doubt that 2022 has been an extremely tough year on the public markets especially for small caps, but these deals show that quality businesses are still able to raise growth capital where investors believe in their management teams and their ability to deliver their plans.”

Michael Hall, partner at Knights added: “It was great to support three excellent northern businesses, and all of us on the Knights deal teams were delighted to help deliver a successful result for them.

“There are challenging times ahead, but our leading deals teams have good pipelines of quality transactions as our clients push ahead with their plans and take advantage of our market-leading skills being located close to home, whether in Sheffield or across our network of offices throughout the UK outside of London.”

Knights is one of the fastest-growing legal and professional services businesses in the UK with Yorkshire offices in Sheffield, Leeds and York. The business is ranked within the top 50 UK law firms by revenue, with specialists in all key areas of corporate and commercial law.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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