Freshfields advises the underwriting banks on the £800m placing of new ordinary shares in United Utilities Group

Global law firm Freshfields is advising J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank as joint global coordinators and BNP PARIBAS, Goldman Sachs International and RBC Capital Markets as joint bookrunners, on the placement of over 60 million new ordinary shares in United Utilities Group PLC, to raise gross proceeds of approximately £800 million.

The placing is the largest capital raise on the London Stock Exchange’s main market so far this year, and was conducted concurrently with an offer to retail investors and subscriptions by certain directors of the company.

As part of the placing, the Company received a cornerstone commitment in respect of £400 million in aggregate from ATLAS Infrastructure with the Future Fund. 

The capital raised will be used to fully fund the equity element of United Utilities’ c.£2.5 billion of incremental investment for the AMP8 regulatory cycle (FY2025-2030).

The Freshfields team was led by partners Egor Marisin and Tom Godwin, alongside senior associate Katie Bentel and associate Caitlin Turner.