Merrill Lynch is leading the initial public offering of PHS Group, a UK office management company, after launching the flotation of Friends Provident on Tuesday.

PHS is aiming to raise £350m (€776.7m) in the offer for which marketing started this week. The company is using £250m to pay down debt and the remaining £100m will be used to reduce the stake of Charterhouse Development Capital, the private equity firm, to 20%. Charterhouse bought PHS for £215m in 1999 in a leveraged buyout.