£106m Quantum IPO puts Zeus Capital over £1bn raised

Quantum, the ­County Durham-based firm, is set to become the biggest pharmaceutical and biotech float on Aim this year with a valuation of £125m when its shares begin trading on 11 December.

 

Zeus has now advised on five of the top 10 largest Aim fundraises of 2014, including the floats of online fashion retailer BooHoo, Australian fashion site MySale, logistics firm DX and building products group Epwin.

 

Andrew Jones director of corporate finance at Zeus, which acted as nominated adviser and broker to Quantum, told City A.M. that despite London’s challenging market earlier in 2014, Quantum’s roadshow “went down very well, it always helps when you have a strong management team on board, and the institutional interest was good as Quantum is a little different rather than just being another ‘me-too’ business in the sector.”

 

Quantum manufactures unlicensed medicines and products for special medical needs for UK pharmacy chains, wholesalers and hospitals that are difficult to source from mainstream wholesalers.

 

Chief executive Andrew Scaife said: “Our decision to list on Aim makes both strategic and commercial sense as we take Quantum to the next stage of its development. We are delighted to see such high levels of institutional demand and we now look forward to working with our new institutional shareholders. We feel that by joining Aim, Quantum will be able to capitalise on the fantastic market opportunities that are available to us both in the UK and overseas.” 

 

Quantum said the funds raised from its float would be used for paying down debts and to complete its acquisition of Kent-based pharmaceutical developers, Colonis.

 

 

Zeus Capital chief executive John Goold has a very simple reason for the investment banking group’s success in dominating the rankings for the top Aim adviser this year. “We’ve combined private equity with a knowledge of regional business throughout the UK, not just those in London,” he says.

 

Indeed, much of the success seen by Zeus has been though floats of businesses coming to London from the regions. Including Manchester-based online fashion retailer Boohoo in March, for which Zeus helped raise £300m, and Cheltenham-based building products supplier Epwin, for which Zeus helped raise £94m.

 

When London’s IPO market hit a slowdown after the second quarter, Zeus, which has offices in Manchester, Birmingham and London, continued to work on successful deals, including the floats of Entu and C4X Discovery.

 

“We carried on through [the market slow down earlier this year], that’s just been about the capability to do deals in a crap market. We really haven’t been afraid of doing deals in a difficult market,” says Goold. Zeus Capital was co-founded by Richard Hughes in 2004, after he sold his stake in Apax Partners (later known as Artemis) in 1999.

 

He named his new business after the Greek god Zeus, the father of Artemis.