Carey Olsen and Ernst & Young advise on multi-million pound share offer deal

International Public Partnerships Limited has raised £200m in its latest share offer, exceeding its initial fundraising target of £180m. The offer for the FTSE 250 closed-ended infrastructure fund, domiciled in Guernsey, included a placing and open offer, and the admission of new shares to the London Stock Exchange main market for listed securities.

Guernsey advisers were Carey Olsen and Ernst &Young. Carey Olsen worked with London law firm Hogan Lovells in advising the company on the legal and regulatory aspects of the transaction. Ernst & Young were the reporting accountants and also advised on tax matters.

Carey Olsen partner Ben Morgan said: “It is always pleasing to see such a great result. The fact that more funds than anticipated were raised through this share offer does indicate that there is investment appetite in the market for the right offering, despite the generally difficult market conditions. We have seen a significant amount of activity in the infrastructure sector in recent times and anticipate that Guernsey is well placed to continue to assist the growth of companies in that sector.”

Mike Bane, partner at Ernst & Young said: “It is easy to forget just how difficult the market conditions have been recently which makes the success of this transaction all the more noteworthy. It is also worth mentioning that it follows other recent successful capital raising by Guernsey based infrastructure funds, which is a pleasing endorsement of the asset class, the type of structure and Guernsey as a jurisdiction.”

International Public Partnerships Limited invests in infrastructure assets, particularly those developed by public bodies under private finance initiatives or public private partnerships. The money raised by this transaction has already begun to be invested. To date INPP has agreed to acquire additional interests in eight Building Schools for the Future education schemes for £30.3m and has made a £115m investment in the Ormonde offshore transmission project to move electricity from offshore wind farms.

Pictured: Ben Morgan (top) and Mike Bane (bottom)