City firms advise as Guardian Media Group magazine business floats on LSE

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance all advised on Ascential's successful debut on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday. While Freshfields advised GMG in the run up to the listing, Simpson Thacher advised Apax and Ascential and Clifford Chance advised the syndicate of banks underwriting the float, including Merrill Lynch, PNB Paribas and Numis Securities. Approximately 35 per cent of the magazine publisher was shifted during the float at 200p per share, with GMG and Apax's stakes in the company now reduced to 23.3 per cent and 38.9 per cent respectively. The Guardian parent company GMG divested shares worth £29.3m, while Apax offloaded shares worth £48.8m. With staff and management selling a further £1.9m worth of Ascential stock, the total windfall for the co-owners hovers around £80m. The £183m raised by Ascential through the listing will be used to pay down its debts, which were recorded at £410m according to the latest publicly available figures. Sources: The Guardian; Legal Week