Zeus Capital is acting as Nominated Adviser, Joint Broker and Joint Bookrunner to Watkin Jones plc on its AIM IPO AND £131m fundraise

Watkin Jones will have a market capitalisation on admission of £255 million, making it the largest AIM IPO of 2016 to date as well as the largest AIM IPO fundraising in the last two years. The directors of Watkin Jones intend to pay an annual dividend equating to a yield of 6 per cent, calculated on the placing price.

Watkin Jones is a leading UK developer and constructor of multi occupancy property assets, with a focus on the student accommodation sector. Since 1999, Watkin Jones has delivered over 28,000 student beds across 88 sites, making it a leader in the UK Purpose Built Student Accommodation (‘PBSA’) market. In the financial year to 30 September 2015, Watkin Jones delivered revenues and operating profit from continuing operations of £244 million and £32.5 million respectively.

Watkin Jones provides an end to end solution for institutional investors, handling the entire lifecycle of a property asset including site identification and procurement, planning applications, construction and delivery, transaction funding and asset management. The company operates an innovative forward sale business model, whereby it sells developments to institutional investors prior to their construction, reducing development risk for Watkin Jones.

The company currently has over 11,000 student beds in its project pipeline, and plans to leverage its position as a leading player in the PBSA market to deliver sustainable increases in revenues and profitability. In addition, the company believes there is scope to expand into the Private Rented Sector market, developing multi occupancy residential property assets for institutional investors, using its existing skill set and expertise.

The team has worked hard to establish our position as a leader in the UK student accommodation market, and it is this ability and ambition that will allow us to capitalise on the significant opportunities ahead.

The PBSA market in particular has huge potential and is supported by a number of attractive market dynamics. We look forward to continuing to grow our business, providing an end to end solution for large scale accommodation projects as a publically quoted company.

Mark Watkin Jones
Chief Executive Officer at Watkin Jones

We are delighted to be advising Watkin Jones plc on its admission to AIM and £131 million fundraising. The Watkin Jones business has been in existence since 1791 and the family have developed a very strong company with an innovative model and an extensive pipeline of new projects. I am confident that with the support of its new institutional investors, Watkin Jones will go from strength to strength as a public company.

Tremayne Ducker
Zeus Capital