Oli has 25 years’ experience in corporate and banking roles. In 2015 he founded OGG Consulting to work with companies preparing for IPOs, drawing on his experience first as a banker and then as an entrepreneurial CEO. He advised FTSE100 & 250 and international companies at Merrill Lynch, where he was a Managing Director, after starting his career at UBS/Warburg. In 2013 he co-founded an international coal technology company, where he was first CFO then CEO.
Projects at OGG Consulting include managing IPOs, M&A and capital raisings. IPOs include MADE.COM (£775m), Charter Court (£550m) and ConvaTec (£4.4bn) and Countryside’s dual track IPO/M&A process, resulting in a successful IPO (£1bn). M&A includes Elementis’s US$500m acquisition of Mondo Minerals and US$230m rights issue and new US$775m debt facility. He also project managed HSS’s £44m equity raise and has helped high growth tech companies prepare for private placements.
For all of these projects, Oli managed both the internal team and external advisors for the CEO, CFO and the Company’s shareholders. This involved finance, operational and legal teams internally and numerous investment banks, law firms, multiple accounting teams and PR advisors externally.
MADE.COM’s £775m IPO attracted cornerstone investors in Capital and Majedie following a series of impressive and well prepared early investor engagements. The transaction took advantage of a clear window to raise capital that arose. This required project managing the IPO process in record time – under four months. To enable this achievement required extensive involvement across the full breadth of work streams – financial, prospectus, board appointments, restructuring, remuneration and internal changes for listing – and co-ordination of both the internal teams and external advisers.
Charter Court’s £550m IPO received strong investor demand at a time when other IPOs were pulled or failed to price in line with their initial expectations. Unusually for a UK IPO at the time, Old Mutual was successfully secured as a £100m cornerstone investor at the time of intention to float. As IPO Consultant, he project managed the IPO process, assisting Charter Court and its shareholders from selection of advisers, throughout the IPO and during its start as a listed company. This involved working alongside the internal team “in-house”, from initial preparation and due diligence, positioning of the equity story and early look meetings, through to analyst presentation, roadshow and post listing arrangements. He also project managed the external team of 4 syndicate banks, 3 accountants, 2 law firms and PR advisers.
ConvaTec’s £4.4bn IPO was was the largest UK IPO since 2013, largest ever European Healthcare IPO and the first major IPO post-Brexit. Further, it successfully launched within its original price range at a time when other major UK IPOs were either postponed or suffered significant reductions in their price expectations. Following IPO, he helped Convatec set up their IR department, acting as interim Head of IR as Convatec entered the FTSE100 and held its initial briefings to analysts and investors. As IPO Consultant, he project managed an extensive internal and external process for the Owners and Management team. This included working alongside the internal team “in-house” across a wide range of key decisions, in addition to an external team consisting of a syndicate of 9 banks, 3 law firms, 2 accountants and PR advisors. He was intimately involved with the comprehensive investor positioning, financial controls processes and broader transaction support to ensure readiness was achieved in a demanding timeline.
Countryside’s IPO was widely viewed by the market as very successful, pricing within its price range despite a challenging market backdrop that caused other transactions to suffer price reductions, be delayed or cancelled. Extensive preparation enabled the Company to achieve its objectives on time, helped by a very thorough investor education and positioning process. With Countryside, he managed both the internal team and external advisors across both IPO and M&A for the CEO and CFO. This involved finance, operational and legal teams internally and 6 investment banks, 2 law firms, multiple accounting teams and PR advisors externally. He also devised and led operational finance projects for Countryside, involving extensive work with the internal finance and operational teams and devising and implementing new systems addressing operational and finance requirements.
Elementis’s US$500m acquisition of Mondo was a major cross-border acquisition that needed to be completed in a very tight timescale. Involving complex acquisition dynamics and funding sources – both a US$230m rights issue and a US$775m debt refinancing – there were multiple documentation and technical challenges involved. He devised and managed a process that involved all 4 of the major accounting firms, external specialist mining consultants and lawyers that delivered ahead of schedule.
Oli has also helped high tech growth companies prepare for private placements. As well as his banking experience, he has been able to draw on his entrepreneurial role as CFO and then CEO of a coal technology company, which involved arranging commercial deals, operational implementation planning and securing financing.
His banking experience covered both ongoing financial advice and executing transactions for his clients. He raised over US$100bn in equity for his clients and executed M&A transactions valued at over US$490bn in over 100 transactions. These include many of the major global transactions of the last twenty years such as Rosneft’s acquisition of TNK, RBS/Santander/Fortis’s acquisition of ABN Amro, ICI’s sale to Akzo Nobel and Vodafone’s acquisition of Mannesmann, as well as landmark IPOs such as QinetiQ, VTB, Old Mutual. He also raised debt, convertibles, bonds, returned capital and advised on ratings agency processes for many UK and international companies and created innovative financial structures such as the simultaneous repurchase/share sale for Carnival.