Addleshaws notches up £1.6bn deals
LAW firm Addleshaw Goddard is expecting trade purchases and private equity exits to dominate the deals landscape after an ‘exceptional’ start to this year by its Manchester team, which has advised on deals worth more than £1.6bn.
This figure does not include its work on arguably the region’s largest deal of the year, the merger of the Thomas Cook and Co-operative Group’s travel agency businesses – which created the UK’s largest high street travel agency, with more than 1,200 branches.
Partner Roger Hart, one of eight partners in the Manchester corporate and M&A team, told TheBusinessDesk.com that, despite turbulent market conditions in the last few weeks, he is reasonably optimistic for the rest of the year.
“Our pipeline of deals is good and it features transactions of all types – but we had an exceptional first seven months of the year during which the entire team was incredibly busy for a long period.
“It was good to get those deals away, rather than see them fall over, as so many others have in recent times. Our workload has inevitably eased a bit since then, but we’re still busy on several deals which will be high-profile when announced.”
Among the deals the Addleshaws team has advised on were the Thomas Cook/Co-operative travel agency merger, the sale of MyProtein to The Hut, the Peel Group’s takeover of Pinewood Shepperton, the sales of British Salt and water group BWA and Wolseley’s disposal of its Build Center and Electric Center businesses.They also advised JD Sports Fashion on its aborted bid for rival JJB Sports.
Looking ahead, Hart feels there are likely to be more acquisitions from US-based trade buyers. “We’re seeing lots of trade buyers from the US – the BWA and Cooper deals are examples – where they have cash on their balance sheets and they see UK assets as attractive because for the US buyers sterling is reasonable value.”
Hart said the firm had been boosted by the arrival of Neil Shepherd, adding: “We now have four partners in our Manchester team who specialise in private equity. No other law firm comes close to that.”
Commenting on the private equity market Shepherd, said: “There is no doubt that transacting in this climate is more challenging for private equity houses than it is for trade buyers.
“Raising debt and clearing diligence hurdles are not easy. In contrast, a cash-rich corporate acquirer can readily pay for synergies and strategic benefits, and they are now quick on their feet.
” However, the PE houses in the North West are a talented bunch, and are nothing if not creative, both in deal origination and in their deal structuring – if an opportunity comes I, for one, would not bet against them to take it. It’s just that they are likely to find exits easier than acquisitions, so I think they will be net sellers this year.”
