DLA Piper go to top of the league
CORPORATE lawyers in the Leeds and Sheffield offices of DLA Piper have topped a league table for deal completions in the Yorkshire region last year.
DLA Piper’s number one placing in the Yorkshire legal advisors deals by volume table sealed another successful year for the award winning corporate team, and matches the legal practice’s ranking as the top deal making law firm globally in a separate survey.
According to figures published by Experian in the highly respected Corpfin deals tables, during 2008, the 10-partner team from DLA Piper’s Yorkshire offices worked on 27 key corporate finance deals for Yorkshire based companies ranging from large national and international transactions to small and mid-market local deals.
Highlights included the £4.1bn sale of Bradford & Bingley loan portfolios, the sale of Young’s Blue Crest to Lion Capital for £1.1bn, the management buyout (MBO) of Kudos Shower Products, the £100m auction sale of the UK business of Uponor Corporation and the sale of Hillfoot Steel.
Jonathan Procter, who leads the corporate team in Leeds, said: “While 2007 was a record breaking year for deals, 2008 was still an excellent year for us with a good mixture of large and small transactions and local, national and international deals in spite of difficult market conditions.”
Richard May, who heads DLA Piper’s Sheffield corporate team, added: “The rankings are hard-earned recognition that we have the largest and most experienced corporate team in the region.
“We continue to operate across a broad spectrum of corporate transactional work, including regional and national mid-market M&A transactions as well as transactions with an international focus.”
The advisor tables, devised by Corpfin Experian, global leaders in the provision of analytical information to organisations and consumers, cover transactions with a deal value of £500,000 and more.
