Hill Dickinson advises Vulcan Industries Plc on its admission to the AQSE

Hill Dickinson’s corporate team has advised Vulcan Industries Plc on a placing and the company’s admission to trading on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market (AQSE). Trading commenced at 08:00 on Monday 1 June 2020.

Vulcan has been incorporated to build a group of UK companies providing products and services to the engineering and manufacturing sectors, particularly focused on metal fabrication and precision engineering, which have underlying profitability and growth potential and can also  benefit from being part of a larger group focused on similar or complementary sectors to the target.

To date, Vulcan has acquired four UK engineering and manufacturing businesses: IVI Metallics (precision quality tacks and nails), Orca Doors (high-quality doors and frames for the healthcare and education markets), Time Rainham (precision industrial components) and M&G Olympic (bespoke architectural metalwork).

The proceeds of Vulcan’s institutional placing will principally be used by the company for working capital purposes, strengthening its balance sheet and funding selected acquisitions.

This is the first IPO on the AQSE since the beginning of the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown in March and, as far as we are aware, is the only completed IPO of a commercial business on any UK stock exchange during that time.

The Hill Dickinson team was led by partner Jaspal Sekhon and associate Melissa Campbell with support from Amy Grosvenor, Paul Jackson, Rianne Byott and Henry Schoen from the corporate team and Will Steed (employment) and Georgia Doyle (property).  

Melissa Campbell commented: ‘We are pleased to have advised Vulcan on its successful IPO. This is undoubtedly a challenging and uncertain time for equity capital markets, but it is encouraging that there continues to be investor support for ambitious and growing businesses. As a firm, we were able to operate as normal across a multi-disciplinary team throughout the height of the pandemic and, even though there were a number of technical and practical challenges to overcome, we were able to do so with the rest of the deal team by using a number of innovative and creative solutions. We very much enjoyed working with the Vulcan management team and we look forward to supporting the group on future projects as part of its acquisition strategy.’

Non-executive chairman Ian Tordoff commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted that Hill Dickinson supported us in the preparation of our admission to AQSE. Melissa and the rest of the team at Hill Dickinson conducted themselves with the upmost professionalism and great diligence. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with them and highly recommend Hill Dickinson for any business approaching a new market.’

Since the beginning of the UK’s lockdown in March, Hill Dickinson’s corporate team has successfully advised on a number of ECM transactions – including secondary fundraisings as well as financing and M&A transactions – and continues to support our clients as normal.