2 July 2004 – LAWFUEL – DLA LLP advised Xyratex Limited on its $392m flotation on NASDAQ, which closed on Tuesday 30 June raising $97m. DLA has acted for Xyratex continuously since the original buyout of the business from IBM in 1994, most recently in September 2003 on the $50m investment in the company by Hg Capital and on numerous other transactions along the way.
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The DLA team was led by partners Peter Wayte and Alex Tamlyn assisted by Kate Francis and Ben Irwin (Corporate), together with director of tax Gregory Morris and employee benefits partner David Reuben.
Alex Tamlyn said: “The Xyratex IPO restructuring was ground-breaking, involving a court approved scheme of arrangement timed to coincide exactly with the closing of the IPO. The co-ordination of the relatively inflexible court process of the scheme with the market-driven scheduling of the IPO was challenging and involved some innovative thinking. It was complicated by the large number of shareholders in Xyratex prior to the IPO, who numbered more than 1200, together with numerous share option schemes, all spread across a variety of different countries.
“This was a significant transaction for Xyratex and also for DLA because it reflects DLA’s continuing success in building our international practice. It also demonstrates that our London City office can offer a wide range of technical legal and project management services necessary for a transaction of this size and complexity.”
