Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyers

We act for both buyers and business owners in a wide range of industry sectors on M&A transactions, ranging from strategic acquisitions to entrepreneurs selling or exiting their businesses.

Our clients include larger corporates and listed companies, owner-managed businesses, SMEs and individual shareholders.

We advise on national and international M&A deals of any size, ranging in value from less than £5 million to up to £100 million or more.

Our expertise includes:

• Share sales and purchases
• Business and assets transactions
• Management buy-outs and buy-ins (MBOs and MBIs)
• Buy and build transactions
• Strategic acquisitions and disposals
• Cross border transactions
• UK and EU merger control
• Group restructurings and accelerated M&A.

Our approach to M&A transactions

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 call on the national capability of the firm with regional understanding, involving our specialist teams from across the firm.

We have mergers and acquisitions specialists in all of the areas that even the most complex transactions might require including:

• banking and finance;
• competition;
• real estate;
• employment;
• pensions;
• planning;
• environmental;
• tax;
• intellectual property;
• data protection and security;
• health and safety; and
• regulatory and compliance.

We take the time at the start of any client relationship to make sure that we fully understand your business and needs to collaboratively achieve your objectives 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 throughout 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 M&A deals

Our mergers and acquisitions lawyers regularly act for listed and non-listed foreign corporates and multinationals looking to acquire or dispose of businesses in the UK, ensuring in particular, that differences in local law and M&A practice and market standards in the clients' home jurisdiction are explained at the outset.

On international deals involving overseas companies and assets, we actively coordinate and work closely with colleagues in Legalink, our global network of leading independent law firms. Legalink covers more than 70 jurisdictions across the world.

Our M&A experience

Recent transactions include:

• advising Sonoco, a NYSE listed packaging company, on their competitive bid purchase of US company Thermoform and its English sister company Plastique Holdings for US$187M
• sale of the Quick Release (Automotive) group to Alten Europe SARL (a French listed company)
• sale of the online freelancer and contractor business of commercial insurance broker Caunce O’Hara to Markel UK
• the acquisition of the UK operations of Alithya by ANS Group
• acting for the founders on the sale of a controlling stake in Fun Learning Studios Limited (t/a Toddler Fun Learning) to Moonbug Entertainment Limited
• advising clinical drug development business Pharmaserve (North west) Development Company Limited, a subsidiary of OBG Pharmaceuticals Limited, on the acquisition of the business and certain assets of Impopharma Inc. of Ontario, Canada
• acting for the shareholders on the sale of the entire issued share capital of The Real Pork Crackling Group of Companies to snack food giant Tayto Group
• acting for Camerons Brewery on the acquisition of the Bar Soba Group
• advising on the Palatine private equity backed management buy-out of Lucion Services.