Mazars advises on Hunters Property on London AIM IPO

Mazars has provided Hunters Property with accountancy and advisory services in its bid to go public through an IPO on London’s AIM exchange, where it entered with a market capitalisation of £16.9 million. The company is looking to expand to 500 branches in the coming years as it eats smaller companies, with the IPO a means of financing its expansion plans.

Hunters Property is an in 1992 established national sales and property management firm that has 153 branches across the UK, of which 142 are franchised. The company offers a range of services to clients, which include property maintenance, sales and transfers, invoicing and collection, process management, annual returns, budgeting, service charge collection, accounting and annual returns. The head office for the firm is in York, with regional offices in London and South East, Yorkshire and Humber, and South West, among others.

The IPO earlier this month saw the company enter with a market capitalisation of £16.9 million on admission, through the release of 28,149,919 ordinary shares at 60 pence apiece. The company was floated on the AIM, which is London’s Stock Exchange for smaller growing companies. The aim of the IPO is to generate capital to further its operations across the UK, with a stated plan of increasing its branches to 500 over the coming years through, among others, M&A.

The company was supported on its IPO by professional services firm Mazers, whose agents provided accountancy and advisory services. The deal sees the consulting firm continue in a role of support to the group following its appointment as auditor.

“This is an immensely exciting day for Hunters. Listing on AIM is a major step forward in our expansion plans: with access to further capital we see significant opportunity to increase our market penetration and strengthen our position as one of the UK’s favourite estate agency brands. I would like to thank Mazars for the invaluable expertise and support they have provided during the flotation process. We look forward to working with them going forward as our provider of audit and assurance services,” comments Ed Jones, CFO of Hunters Property.

Richard Metcalfe, Mazars’ UK Head of Capital Markets, adds: “We are delighted to support such a big name in UK property sector during this exciting period of development for the business. We wish them every success with their future growth strategy and are looking forward to working closely with them to provide auditing and assurance support.”