FORMER senior Anglo Irish Bank official Neil Adair is one of a trio of founder-directors of a new company from Northern Ireland set to be listed on the main London Stork Market from next month.
Rockpool Acquisitions, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) which intends to invest into Northern Ireland businesses, is hoping to raise £1.5 million at the IPO stage, and it expects its shares to start trading on July 5.
The so-called cash shell will raise money from shareholders and then buy a business or businesses in a specific sector.
It has so far identified "four or five potential targets", and will look at acquisitions of up to £20 million which could benefit from at least £1 million of additional working capital.
Mr Adair (55) will be joined on the board of Rockpool by Belfast corporate financier Mike Irvine (42) and London lawyer Richard Beresford (53).
Between them they have more than 60 years’ experience of the Northern Ireland market. Between them they have considerable industry, acquisitions, legal, public markets and financial and operational management experience with good access to potential targets.
They a proven track record of raising money for privately-owned companies based in Northern Ireland, advising on and making acquisitions, and operating and growing a wide diversity of businesses.
Mr Irvine said: "Our decision to list on the London Stock Exchange makes both strategic and commercial sense as we believe that there are a number of excellent Northern Ireland based companies that would benefit from access to the deeper pools of capital that a listing provides.
"The Northern Ireland business community has a strong heritage of entrepreneurship but has not necessarily taken full advantage of the public markets."
Speaking to the Irish News, Mr Beresford said: "We believe there are a number of strong Northern Irish businesses that are not currently able to access the growth capital that they need to achieve their full potential.
"Rockpool will be targeting a potential acquisition which is in such a position and which has an international outlook and is not entirely focused on the Northern Ireland market."
He said there had already been commitments from investors to buy shares in Rockpool, which on its admission will be only the third Northern Irish company currently listed on the London Stock Exchange.
It is likely that the first acquisition, which Rockpool aims to make within a year, will be treated as a "reverse takeover", requiring the publication of a prospectus and an application to be re-admitted to the official list of the stock exchange.
