Law firm celebrates total deals value of £5bn

Addleshaw Goddard’s Manchester corporate and banking teams have announced a strong 2017 having advised on about 50 deals with a cumulative value of over £5bn.

Ranked as one of the most active legal advisers in the local market by Experian & the legal directories, the teams continue to increase fee income year-on-year advising on high-profile regional and national transactions.

Highlights include advising regional businesses on deals such as Sumo Group’s £145m IPO, the sale of the entire issued share capital of SPS to Polyconcept and Boohoo.com’s £130m accelerated bookbuild fundraising.

There was also B&M’s £152m acquisition of Heron Foods and Speedy Hire’s acquisitions of Prolif Access Ltd and Platform Sales and Hire Ltd as well as Norcros’ £60m purchase of Merlyn Industries.

Meanwhile, the firm continuing to dominate the NW Private Equity market, advising the majority of the region’s existing and new PE entrants on deals including Inflexion’s £150m minority investment into Radius; NorthEdge’s sale of shares in Ramsdens; Endless’ buyout of Antler from LDC; Foresight’s investment into Mowgli Street Food; LDC’s exit from The Creative Engagement Group; Ardenton Capital’s acquisition of Corbetts the Galvanisers and Phoenix’s sale of Key Retirement Group.

AG also advised on a string of high value local market financing deals – 15 with a value of more than £100m – including one deal for more than £500m and upwards of eight deals with a value of £200m.

These included The Hut Group’s £515m revolving credit facility; advising Tosca Debt Capital in connection with a second lien term loan to Verna Group; the refinancing of Dechra’s £235m revolving credit facility; advising Santander on the refinance of Gusto Restaurants; advising Clydesdale Bank on loan facilities in connection with the management buyout of biscuit manufacturer Hill Biscuits and the largest NW ABL deal of the year – advising RBS Invoice Finance on its £50m ABL facility to Halewood International; advising on high-profile national mandates including the sale of Millarworld to Netflix – their first global acquisition; and adding major new clients BASF, Tata Chemicals, Dixons Carphone, Tosca Debt Capital, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Park Group and Car Finance 247 to its client roster.

Paul Medlicott, corporate partner at Addleshaw Goddard said: “Amid economic uncertainty, the North West deals market has remained not only resilient but buoyant.

“Despite lingering Brexit uncertainties, the pipeline is strong and the teams have been really busy and we continue to invest in it – including six new starters in six weeks.”