Law firm has worked on £1bn worth of deals since start of the year

Law firm Squire Patton Boggs has advised on 49 transactions worth over £1bn since the start of the year.

Deals have included the Co-op’s acquisition of NHS-approved digital platform Dimec Limited, advising Belden on its cross-border acquisition of Snell Advanced Media Limited and advising On The Beach on its acquisition of Classic Collection Holidays.

Corporate partner James Fitzgibbon led a team advising the Co-op on the acquisition of Dimec, which will be used as a platform by the Co-op to accelerate the development of its healthcare offering.

This is the first deal that the firm has completed for the Co-op since it was appointed as a new member of the Co-op’s legal panel in May of this year.

Partner Darren Warburton, assisted by associate Matt Canipa, led a global team of more than 60 lawyers across 14 countries that advised Belden on the acquisition of Snell Advanced Media Limited from Lloyds Development Capital and management.

A team led by partner Giles Chesher, assisted by associate Josh Crawley, advised longstanding client On The Beach on its acquisition of Classic Collection.

This transaction is the second completed by the team for On The Beach in the last 18 months.

Partner Andrea Cropley has led a team advising on the institutional investment into Bantry Bay Capital (formerly Grovepoint Credit), the UK debt investment firm, and the investment into artificial intelligence technology company Mindtrace by Northern Powerhouse Fund and Accelerated Digital Ventures, assisted by associate Alexandra Keane.

Giles Chesher, head of the Manchester Corporate team, said: “It has been an exceptionally busy year, with transactions across the full spectrum of our client base, from SMEs to global corporates, and from sales of owner-managed businesses to multi-jurisdictional institutional buy-outs.

“Our global platform and partner-led commercial advice make us the ‘one-stop shop’ for all of our client’s M&A requirements.

“We have acted in lead roles on transactions worth more than £1bn for a wide variety of clients, including private equity houses and longstanding corporate clients, such as GB Group and Molson Coors, who we have advised on some transformative transactions.

“These relationships, coupled with mandates we have won from new clients, have given us a very strong pipeline of work as we approach the end of the year and into 2019. We expect the value of our deals for the year to be well in excess of £1.5bn.”

Other notable transactions during this period also included advising:
• Molson Coors on the acquisition of cider brand Aspall (Jane Haxby)
• ECI on the management buyout of internet of things managed services provider Arkessa (James Fitzgibbon and Giles Chesher)
• On The Beach Travel Limited on the £20 million acquisition of Classic Collection Holidays Limited (Giles Chesher)
• The management shareholders of recruitment outsourcing company de Poel on the sale of the business to Geometric Results, Inc., a portfolio company of Bain Capital (James Fitzgibbon)
• Advising ECI on its investment in The Clear Group, an independent insurance broker (James Fitzgibbon)
• BGF on its investment in Luby Group (James Fitzgibbon)
• Maven Capital Partners on its investment in Bright Networks (James Fitzgibbon)
• NorthEdge Capital on a significant investment in cloud infrastructure specialist Cloud Technology Solutions (Giles Chesher and James Fitzgibbon)
• BGF portfolio company, Coaching Inns Group, on a group refinancing and on the acquisition of a hotel business (Andrea Cropley)
• Galliford Try on the disposal of its investment in the North East Batch Schools PPP scheme to infrastructure investor; InfraRed Investments (Andrea Cropley)
• Advising on the investment into biosciences company Aptamer Group by the Dutch investment firm Meneldor (Andrea Cropley)
• Advising Miss Group on an investment by BGF, and several bolt-on acquisitions (Giles Chesher)
• Advising management of the buy-out of Nexus Vehicle Rental by Phoenix (Giles Chesher)
• Advising environmental and data analytics company AirSensa on its mini-bond issue and fundraising (James Fitzgibbon)