Clifford Chance advises BofA Securities and BNP Paribas in their capacity as underwriters on the IPO and London premium listing of Baltic Classifieds Group PLC (“BCG”)

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance advised Merrill Lynch International (“BofA Securities”) as sole sponsor and sole global co-ordinator and BNP Paribas, acting as joint bookrunner with BofA Securities, on the IPO and London premium listing of BCG. The transaction raised approximately £380 million of gross proceeds (taking into account the exercise of the over-allotment option) and valued BCG at approximately £825 million at the commencement of conditional dealings on the London Stock Exchange on 30 June 2021. BCG is the leading online classifieds group in the Baltics (based on the number of visits and listings) and owns and operates 12 leading vertical and generalist online classifieds portals in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, comprising eight vertical portals across automotive, real estate, and jobs and services, and four generalist portals, offering a wide range of products.

The Clifford Chance team was led by capital markets partners Chris Roe (ECM) and John Connolly (US Securities), with support from senior associates Ben Morgan and Chris Osborne, and associates Joe Paddon and Teri Teng.

This transaction is one of a number of equity capital markets mandates that Clifford Chance has advised on over the course of the last year, leveraging its market leading equity capital markets and corporate practices to advise clients on a broad range of corporate finance options, including on the rights issue of C&C Group, the London IPOs of PensionBee and THG, as well as the floats of Pepco Group, CTP, InPost and Allegro in Continental Europe.