Deal news: Addleshaws; Brabners hail Q1 success
LAW firm Addleshaw Goddard’s corporate team has enjoyed a bumper start to 2015.
In the three months to the end of March in North West region alone, it completed North West deals worth more than £1.75bn.
The team advised on all of the region’s highest profile deals, including advising Zeus Capital on its role as Nomad and joint broker to Haversham Holdings on its £1.17bn reverse takeover of British Car Auctions, Peel on its joint venture with Legal and General at MediaCityUK and also on the reduction to 39% of its shareholding in AIM-listed Pinewood Group, LivingBridge on its investment in Sykes Cottages at a £50m valuation and Bruntwood on its acquisition of the former BBC site on Oxford Road.
Partner Roger Hart said: “Our corporate team continues to advise the region’s top businesses on the region’s best deals. We’ve had an amazing start to 2015 and our pipeline leaves us confident of continuing that for the remainder of the year.”
Andy Green, newly-appointed private equity partner at AG, said: “Private Equity houses have significant funds to spend in the North West and banks are keen to lend, on increasingly favourable terms. We feel that good businesses have more options available to them in the current climate, and that this will see a continuation of the strong deal flow over the coming months.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool, Manchester and Preston-basd Brabners has been ranked in the top 10 most active M&A legal advisers in the UK.
The firm says it achieved a 21% year-on-year increase in the number of deals completed in the first quarter.
According to Experian’s Market IQ rankings, Brabners has retained its status as the most active M&A legal adviser in the region and the eighth most active legal adviser in the UK overal.
Brabners completed a total of 17 M&A transactions in Q1. Highlights included acting for the Feathers Group on the sale of a portfolio of eight hotels and a catering business to Topland, advising the Wheatsheaf Group on its investment into manufacturer David Ball Group, acting for lender NatWest in the fundraising at Duo Plastics and advising Crawford Healthcare on its refinancing.
David Bowcock, partner and head of corporate in Manchester said: “The fact that our team saw a year-on-year increase in deal volumes in this period, despite some natural hesitation in the market ahead of the general election, is clear signal of our growing reputation at a national level.”
Liverpool corporate head Mark Rathbone added: “This strong start to the year reflects the firm’s clear focus on core transactional work, our growing client base of entrepreneurial, owner-managed and family businesses and an ongoing drive to attract and develop the best talent in the market.”
