Mergers and acquisitions and capital markets

Our national mergers and acquisitions and capital markets team covers the entire country with teams in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. We act on a very broad range of transactions, from entrepreneurs selling their businesses to larger corporates and listed companies on an acquisition programme, reverse takeovers and IPOs on the Main Market and AIM.  We act for clients on deals of any size, ranging from less than £5 million to up to £100 million or more.

Our expertise includes:

• Share sales and purchases;
• Business and assets transactions;
• Public M&A and recommended takeovers and other matters governed by the Takeover Code;
• Capital markets transactions (including reverse takeovers and IPOs on the Main Market and AIM);
• Management buy-outs and buy-ins;
• Buy and build transactions;
• Strategic acquisitions and disposals;
• Cross border transactions;
• Group restructurings and accelerated M&A.

Specialist teams

M&A transactions can be complex and we often involve our specialist teams from across the firm.  We have specialists in all of the areas that even the most complex transactions might require including Banking and finance; Real Estate; Employment; Pensions; Planning; Environmental; Tax; Intellectual Property; Data Protection and Security; Health and safety; and Regulatory compliance

Our approach

On all deals we pride ourselves on delivering the right deal for you and we will pull out all the stops to make it happen within your timetable and your budget.

We take the time at the start of any client relationship to make sure that we fully understand your business and the objectives that you want to achieve on any transaction.  We want our clients to see us as part of their wider commercial team.  We have acted for many of our clients for years, if not decades.

We always aim to give straightforward, simple, pragmatic advice to help you get the deal done on the right terms.  

On sale mandates we work closely with owners and advisors ideally getting involved some time before the transaction to prepare the ground with a pre-sale legal health check to unearth and resolve any problems.  We can also review ownership structures to ensure the owners can take advantage of any tax planning opportunities.  

When we act for buyers we assist with genuinely focussed due diligence, working closely with other advisors thoroughly to understand the target business and how the buyer can make the most of the acquisition opportunity.   We provide a tailored reporting service in a user friendly format to assist with post deal integration.

International deals

We regularly act for listed and non listed foreign corporates and multi nationals looking to acquire or dispose of business in the UK, ensuring in particular, that differences in local law and M&A practice and market standards in the clients’ home jurisdictional are explained at the outset.  On international deals we work closely with colleagues in Legalink, our global network of leading independent law firms.  Legalink covers more than 60 jurisdictions across the world.

Fees

We take a flexible approach to fee structures and are happy to work on a fixed fee, capped fee or fee estimate model to suit every client budget.

Recent transactions include:

• Take private of ANS Group plc; 
• Purchase by the Verder Group of the Fullwood Packo Group; 
• Sale of Insurance Initiatives Limited to LexisNexis/ Reed Elsevier; 
• Sale of Afonwen Laundry Limited to Johnson Group plc;
• Acquisition of Care4U and Ideal Healthcare pharmacy groups by Well; 
• Advising Rio Tinto on sale of Anglesey Aluminium Metal Renewables Limited to Lateral Eco Parks Anglesey limited; 
• Acquisition of Laminar Medica Limited by Sonoco Cores and Paper Limited;  
• Advising shareholders of TF Solutions Limited on the sale to Travis Perkins plc;
• Advising shareholders of Motor Trade Delivery Limited on the sale to Autotrader.