MARKETING
YOUR COMPANY
Your NOMAD and broker will help you to develop
your equity story, setting out where the company’s
strengths lie and its strategy for successfully tapping
into the addressable market. While the UK investor
pool is very international in its outlook and happy to
look at growth opportunities outside of the UK, you
will need to be prepared to answer questions about
why you are looking to the UK as the source of your
next raise.
There are various possible reasons to seek a UK
flotation which include the ability to go public at an
earlier stage; establishing a UK nexus as a base for
international expansion; accessing a high quality
long-term investor base that has a different outlook to
traditional VCs; and so on. You will need to be prepared
for this question and to be convincing about your
particular motivation.
As noted above, you will likely have contact with
prospective investors before the IPO process starts in
earnest. Once the process begins, there will be further
opportunities for investor contact, including by the
research analyst of the NOMAD or broker, who will
write independent research for the investors setting out
their view of the company. The availability of early-look
meetings and research reports differs from common
market practice in US listings and helps to de-risk the
process.
In terms of structuring, there is a general sentiment
that it is an easier sell to UK investors if the issuer
does not have a strong US-centric feel as UK investors
are more familiar with investing in UK company
shares. As such, although this is by no means a hard
and fast rule - and there are plenty of examples of US
businesses listing shares in their US companies directly
(eg Verseon, Maxcyte, Boku) - many issuers take the
opportunity to put a UK topco in place to provide for
a group structure with an international look and feel
about it.
…the availability of early-look meetings
and research reports differs from common
market practice in US listings and helps to de-risk
the process…
TAX CONSIDERATIONS
When evaluating the optimal group structure, your
principal considerations should be the tax impact of
carrying out any group reorganisation and achieving
tax efficiencies within the group post-IPO.
If a UK or offshore holding company is put in place,
then it is possible that the US ‘anti-inversion’ rules will
apply. This would mean that the holding company will
be subject to tax in both the US and in the country of
its incorporation or residence (ie the UK or elsewhere).
As the application of the US-UK double tax treaty, in
particular, is less than clear on this matter, not only
could the holding company be subject to filings in both
jurisdictions but it may also be liable to tax in both
depending on whether or not it has profits at topco
level.
In addition, any dividends to investors from the non-US
holdco would be subject to US withholding tax as if they
were declared from a US entity. That said, many growth
companies that list on AIM are not dividend plays, so
this is unlikely to be an issue in practice.
While this US withholding would have been applicable
in any event if the issuer had not restructured outside
the US, there will be prominent disclosures and a
specific risk factor to address this in the Admission
Document.
If a new topco is inserted, it will also be important
to ensure that there is no tax leakage or adverse
tax consequences from the company’s existing
stockholders swapping their US stock interests for
shares in the new topco. This includes ensuring that
no capital gains, transfer taxes or tax reliefs (eg under
the Qualified Small Business Scheme rules (QSBS) in
California, or similar) are inadvertently triggered or
lost. While advice is needed on the specific facts, these
issues do tend to be navigable.
Finally, as well as any specific considerations that will
be applicable to preparing your company for IPO, it will
also be necessary to give thought as to what you would
like the group structure to look like from an operational
perspective. In other words, what are the important
jurisdictions for your business to grow into and what is
the optimal corporate group structure to achieve that.
…while advice is needed on the specific
facts, these issues do tend to be navigable.
LISTING ON AIM | 6