Emily Airton Principal Associate

Emily Airton

Emily is a principal associate in the Corporate group and a member of the Financial Services and Funds team. She predominantly acts for listed closed-ended investment funds and trading companies as well as their investment managers, sponsors, nomads and financial advisers. Emily has a particular focus on corporate finance and equity capital markets related work, regularly advising clients on transactions including initial public offerings and secondary issues on the London Stock Exchange (including the Main Market, AIM and the Specialist Fund Segment) and public company takeovers and mergers (with both bidder and target side experience).

Emily also has experience advising both private and public companies on a range of other corporate matters, including domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, solvent restructurings, venture capital and private fund investments, and general corporate governance and compliance matters. Emily works with clients from across a range of sectors including technology, financial services, asset management, commercial real estate, energy, hospitality, infrastructure and mining.

Experience

Work highlights include:

• Lead associate acting for AssetCo plc, as bidder, on its c.£300 million recommended reverse takeover, structured by way of scheme of arrangement, of Main Market-listed investment manager River and Mercantile Group plc, and the subsequent re-admission of AssetCo plc to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
• Lead associate acting for GCP Student Living plc, as target, on its c.£969 million recommended takeover (by way of scheme of arrangement) by a consortium of Scape Living PLC and iQSA Holdco Limited, partially funded by their respective primary shareholders, being funds managed by APG Asset Management N.V. and certain funds managed by Blackstone.
• Lead associate acting for Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited, the first UK listed fund to focus on investment in digital infrastructure, on its £370 million initial public offering on the Specialist Fund Segment.
• Lead associate advising Ruffer Investment Company Limited on the publication of prospectuses relating to tap issuances that have taken Ruffer from a market capitalisation of c.£678 million to c. £1.13 billion. 
• Undertaking a seven month secondment to leading venture capital firm Molten Ventures plc (formerly Draper Esprit plc), as well as advising them on a number of secondary fundraisings on AIM and Euronext Growth, and their subsequent move to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and the regulated market of the Irish Stock Exchange.
• Acting for Codemasters Group Holdings plc, as target, on its US$1.2 billion recommended takeover (by way of scheme of arrangement) by Electronic Arts in a competitive process which included a US$994 million prior offer by Take-Two.
• Lead associate acting for Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company plc on its £130 million Main Market initial public offering.
• Advising Peel Hunt LLP as sponsor and joint financial adviser on the merger of its client LXi REIT plc with Secure Income REIT plc in a transaction which valued Securities Income REIT at approximately £1.5 billion and the value of the group post-merger at approximately £3 billion.
• Lead associate advising global restaurant group Azumi on its partnership with Saudi Arabia's MJS Holdings to expand its portfolio into the region.
• Advising Meggitt PLC on its successful divestiture of Avica Aerospace Ducting to Leggett & Platt, Incorporated.