Windfall stock market float nets FRP partners £60 million

A London-based insolvency firm that worked on the administration of British luxury brand Aquascutum delivered a £60 million windfall for partners on Friday after launching a stock market float.

FRP Advisory, which worked on the BHS and Patisserie Valerie collapses, will list on the AIM with a £190 million valuation. It is the largest listing on the junior market this year.

As part of the float, the firm’s top partners including chief exective Geoff Rowley will sell £60 million of shares.

They will retain 50% of the firm. Fund managers Premier Miton and Liontrust are buying some of the shares. Cenkos is leading the float, which starts trading next month.

Rowley, 48, and operating chief Jeremy French, 61, founded the firm in 2010 after a management buyout from defunct accounting firm Vantis.

Aquascutum went into administration in 2012 and was later sold for £15 million to Hong Kong’s YGM Trading.