Register Log-in Investor Type

News

Oakley Capital to apply for specialist LSE listing

190718 - oakley capital

Oakley Capital to apply for specialist LSE listing – The UK-focused private equity investment company, Oakley Capital (OCI), has announced its intention to apply for admission of its ordinary shares to the specialist fund segment (SFS) of the London stock exchange’s (LSE) main market; OCI has given notice of the intended cancellation of trading of its shares on AIM.

The following extract is taken from OCI’s press release from this morning: “As part of an ongoing review designed to ensure OCI offers investors best-in-class transparency, risk management structures and governance, the board of OCI has concluded that the SFS is at this stage a more appropriate market for an investment company of OCI’s size, type, structure and investment policy.

OCI has grown significantly following strong and consistent performance, with the company’s net asset value increasing to circa £575m as at 31 December 2018.  The principal driver of this performance has been the high growth in earnings of the underlying Oakley Funds’ portfolio companies.  These companies typically benefit from being market leaders in their chosen niche, a niche that is importantly enjoying some form of structural growth.They have high revenue visibility as a result of contracted or recurring sales and enjoy large diversified customer bases.

Types of investor

An investment in the Company is designed to be suitable for institutional, professional, professionally advised and knowledgeable investors primarily seeking exposure to private mid-market UK and European businesses through investment in the Oakley Funds (and successor funds) and (a) who understand and are willing to assume the potential risks of capital loss associated with investments in such companies, (b) who understand the illiquid nature of private equity compared to other asset classes, (c) for whom an investment in the Company’s securities would be of a long-term nature constituting part of a diversified portfolio, and (d) who understand, or who have been advised of, the potential risk from investing in companies admitted to the Specialist Fund Segment.”

[If you are a private investor who bought Oakley’s shares on AIM you might find that some platforms restrict dealing in the company when it moves to the specialist fund segment (SFM). You might find it a bit puzzling that the powers that be were happy for you to buy the shares when it was a smaller, less developed company but now think you should be discouraged from buying it. We are aware that there is some confusion amongst the platforms – there is no prohibition on you buying and holding shares on the SFM. However, you should be aware that SFM listed funds often have more concentrated portfolios and/or more concentrated share registers than funds on the main market. They may also have more complex investment approaches. We understand the sentiment behind trying to protect you from buying such companies but are not sure why there is no similar restriction imposed by platforms on buying some of the more outlandish and speculative shares in companies in the technology, mining and oil sectors, for example.]

OCI: Oakley Capital to apply for specialist LSE listing

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please review our cookie, privacy & data protection and terms and conditions policies and, if you accept, please select your place of residence and whether you are a private or professional investor.

You live in…

You are a…