Choosing suitable, good quality advisers is one of the most important steps towards flotation. There are so many aspects to joining the Main Market – legal and regulatory, financial and marketing – that you need a team of experienced advisers to guide you through the process.
Below we summarise their roles:
Sponsor
The sponsor plays a pivotal role, advising you, liasing with the Exchange and UK Listing Authority and co-ordinating other advisers. Your sponsor is normally an investment bank, corporate finance house, stockbroker or accountancy firm. The UKLA has a list of approved sponsors.
Accountant
The reporting accountant is responsible for reviewing and auditing your company’s finances for potential investors.
Corporate lawyer
Your lawyers draw up all agreements surrounding the flotation. They are also responsible for the due diligence process - verifying statements in the prospectus and other documents.
Corporate broker
Your main interface with the stock market and potential investors. As well as advising you and your sponsor on market conditions and the likely level of demand, the corporate broker also actively markets the shares to potential investors, and can advise on the best method of flotation, size of the issue, timing and price.
Financial PR company
Responsible for promoting your company - and its prospects, to the investment community. In the run up to joining our markets your PR company helps create the analyst presentations; afterwards they advise you on your investor relations strategy.
A practical guide to listing covers the advisers’ roles in greater detail.