Smithfield is CLS’s retained financial PR agency and the project was undertaken separately by Smithfield’s financial services team.

Smithfield was also tasked with coordinating the advertising for the bond. The offer was closed early and the company raised £65m through the bond, in excess of the £50 million target.

The retail bond, which listed on the ORB market of the London Stock Exchange offered investors a yield of 5.5% per year on a fixed seven year coupon, sought to raise £50m. The launch attracted national and retail investment trade media coverage – including articles in the Financial Times and Mail on Sunday and an interview with the CEO on Radio 4’s Today Programme.

“Launching a retail bond required speaking to intermediaries, private client brokers and retail investors – and the media which are read by them – which, naturally, have not formed part of the equity investor audience with whom Smithfield has supported our engagement in the past," explained CLS CEO, Richard Tice. "As such, Smithfield’s expertise in communicating the key strengths of our retail bond to these groups was invaluable during the road show process and was a significant part in helping our issue raise substantially more than the targeted £50m”