Linklaters advises Alphawave IP on £3.1bn. initial public offering

Linklaters advised Alphawave IP Group plc on its £3.1bn  initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the London Stock Exchange. The listing is the largest admission of a North American company in London Stock Exchange history and is one of the largest semiconductor IPOs in the world so far.

Founded in 2017, Alphawave IP addresses a critical need in the technology world: it designs industry-leading wired connectivity solutions that enable data to travel faster, more reliably, using lower power. Its intellectual property solutions support data transmission in semiconductor devices, providing designs for interfaces that utilise advanced data transmission technology to ensure the highest transmission speeds at low power levels. Alphawave IP has been profitable since its first full year of operations in 2018 and licenses its intellectual property to some of the largest technology companies in the world.

The Linklaters team was led by corporate partners James Wootton and Mike Bienenfeld, and included Senior US Associate, Cole Smith and Managing Associate, Avi Cohen.

Partner, James Wootton, commented:

“We are proud to have supported such an innovative and fast-growing company on its public listing in London. This transaction brings a timely boost to the UK-listed technology sector and reinforces London as a centre of gravity for some of the world’s leading tech companies. We look forward to building on our strong relationship with Alphawave IP and its highly experienced senior management team.”

John Lofton Holt, Executive Chairman of Alphawave IP, commented:

“It was a pleasure to work with the entire Linklaters team on this ground-breaking transaction!  Never in my career have I worked with such a meticulous and professional legal team on a complex transaction like this one.  As a result of the hard work by the Linklaters team, we were able to complete our IPO several weeks ahead of the original schedule, which is a feat rarely accomplished in this business.”

This high-profile IPO is just one example of a number of similar transactions on which Linklaters has recently acted. Already in 2021, the firm has worked on the listings of Trustpilot, Moonpig and Dr. Martens.