Eversheds Sutherland advises OnTheMarket plc on property portal flotation

Eversheds Sutherland has advised OnTheMarket plc on its placing and admission to trading on AIM.

OnTheMarket plc, which starts trading on AIM today (9 February, 2018), is the parent company of longstanding Eversheds Sutherland client Agents’ Mutual, which owns and operates the UK online residential property portal OnTheMarket.com.

Agents’ Mutual was originally established by a consortium of well-known estate agents to create a new residential property portal to challenge Rightmove and Zoopla by offering a premier search experience to consumers whilst charging sustainably fair prices to agents. 

As part of the IPO, OnTheMarket plc has raised £30 million of new equity capital with the aim of expanding the portal by achieving rapid growth in listing agents and other advertisers and also in property-seeking consumers visiting OnTheMarket.com. 

The Eversheds Sutherland team was led by partners Sebastian Orton and Chris Halliday. The team included: Phillip Becker, Lily Tomkins and Hannah Kaye (corporate), Daniel Blum and Victoria Green (employee incentives), Jamie Leader and Camilla Eliott Lockhart (restructuring), Richard Prowse, Lorna Doggett and Christopher Perks (commercial), Paul Fontes and Emma Stevens (employment). 

Sebastian Orton said: 

“The £30m placing and admission to AIM should provide OnTheMarket plc with the means to continue its growth and expansion in this particularly high profile and profitable sector. This move is fundamental to the company’s strategy and we are pleased to have supported it through a very complex transaction.” 

Ian Springett, CEO of OnTheMarket, said: 

“Once again, Eversheds Sutherland has successfully supported us on what is another significant milestone in the development of the business. Over the years, Eversheds Sutherland has developed a deep understanding of our business, our people and how we operate, together with an intrinsic understanding of the commercial implications of the advice that the team provides on every part of our business, and at every stage. We couldn’t have a better legal team on board.”

Eversheds Sutherland has advised Agents’ Mutual since its establishment in 2013. In 2017, the firm successfully represented Agents’ Mutual in one of the stand-out competition cases of the year: Agents' Mutual v Gascoigne Halman.

Eversheds Sutherland now provides advice to Agents’ Mutual and OnTheMarket plc across a wide range of areas including competition, employment, disputes, intellectual property/brand protection and employee incentives.