Baltic Classifieds Group started trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange

Baltic Classifieds Group, with its roots and main hub in Lithuania, is the leading online classifieds group in the Baltics (based on the number of visits and listings), which owns and operates twelve leading vertical and generalist online classifieds portals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Those include such market leaders as autoplius.lt and aruodas.lt in Lithuania, auto24.ee and KV.ee in Estonia and city24.lv in Latvia.

Baltic Classifieds Group has offered 200,000,000 shares at an offer price of GBP 1.65 per share and has been admitted to the premium listing segment of the official list and to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange – the first Baltic business to debut in this premium category.

Since the start of conditional trading the price of shares has already grown, and the market capitalization of the company has exceeded EUR 1 billion.

“This IPO is the newest proof that more and more Baltic businesses are growing into world-class success stories. We congratulate everyone at Baltic Classifieds Group for this achievement and look forward to helping them conquer new heights. A successful IPO and listing in London is a great start!” said Rūta Armonė, associate partner and co-head of co-head of Corporate & M&A Practice at Ellex Valiunas, who led the overall firm’s effort on the project.

BofA Securities (previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch) acted as the sponsor and global coordinator. BNP PARIBAS and BofA Securites acted as the joint book-runners.

Ellex advised the company on all matters of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian laws. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as the legal adviser on English and US laws. Clifford Chance LLP acted as the legal adviser to the underwriters. Reporting accountant was KPMG LLP. Equiniti Limited is the registrar.

The overall Ellex team was led by Associate Partner Rūta Armonė. In Lithuania it included Aleksandr Asovskij, Augustinas Mačionis, Dominykas Kiršis, Arvydas Grušeckas, Gintarė Skrolienė, Ainis Augustas Petrulis, Kristupas Spirgys, Mantas Rimkevičius, Vilius Norvaišas, Nerijus Patlabys, Gintaras Balčius, Ingrida Kemežienė, Marius Juonys, Simona Luimienė and many others.

Latvian team was led by Partner Raimonds Slaidiņš and Senior Associate Reinis Sokolovs, Mikijs Zīmecs, Anna Mišņeva, Ints Skaldis and Eduards Dzintars.

Estonian team was led by Partner Sven Papp Senior Associate Gerda Liik and included Martin Mäesalu, Mari Must, Dmitri Rozenblat, Jaanus Ikla, Kairi Kilgi, Toomas Kasesalu, Regina Getter Maajärv and Kevin Gerretz.