Lawyers in the Bristol office of international legal practice Osborne Clarke have advised broker Liberum Capital on its handling of online-only building materials retailer CMO Group’s London Stock Exchange flotation.
Plymouth-based CMO is seeking to capitalise on the construction sector’s comparatively slow move online and Britain’s £27bn addressable building materials market. 
Liberum Capital advised the firm on the £95m initial public offering (IPO) on the AIM market and associated £45m institutional placing in its capacity as nominated adviser, sole bookrunner and sole broker,
The placing raised £27.3m and £17.7m for CMO and the selling shareholders, including Key Capital Partners and certain founders, respectively.
The Osborne Clarke team that advised Liberum on the transaction was led by Bristol-based partner Mark Wesker, pictured, who was assisted by senior associate Ed Nisbet and associate Adam Turner. Simmons & Simmons, led by Patrick Graves, advised CMO.
The transaction is the fourth AIM IPO that Osborne Clarke has advised on this year. In the first half it advised the issuer on three other AIM IPOs (acting for In The Style, AMTE Power and TEAM Asset Management) which resulted in the firm being ranked by Lexis Nexis as the legal adviser that had advised the issuer on the largest number of AIM IPOs in that timeframe.
Osborne Clarke’s corporate team, which is ranked in band 1 for capital markets: AIM by respected legal directory Chambers, works with a range of clients from global businesses to fast-growth start-ups and market challengers.
The team advises at every stage of company development across all corporate issues, from equity and debt fundraisings to mergers and acquisitions, IPOs and joint ventures.
CMO operates seven specialist ‘superstore’ websites – roofingsuperstore.co.uk, drainagesuperstore.co.uk, insulationsuperstore.co.uk, doorsuperstore.co.uk, tileandfloorsuperstore.co.uk, cmotrade.co.uk and totaltiles.co.uk.
