Leeds team advises on deals totalling £2.25bn so far this year
Squire Patton Boggs has advised on 51 transactions worth over £2.25bn in the first three quarters of 2017.
Headline deals included the £750macquisition of Zenith by private equity investor Bridgepoint; the £103m acquisition of Park Leisure; the Warburg Pincus-backed merger of travel services groups Accelya and Mercator, and Animalcare Group’s reverse takeover of Ecuphar NV.
Corporate partner Jonathan Jones, assisted by Jayne Aarons, advised the management team of Zenith, the UK’s leading independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business, on its acquisition by Bridgepoint and acquisition of Contract Vehicle Leasing. This is the sixth successive MBO of Zenith in 14 years.
A team led by partner Hannah Kendrick, assisted by Craig Pettit, advised luxury holiday park operator Park Leisure on its acquisition by a management team led by Park Leisure’s co-founder, Miles Dewhurst, and Midlothian Capital Partners. Kendrick also led the team advising Animalcare Group on the reverse takeover of Belgium-headquartered Ecuphar.
Partner Richard Hunt, assisted by Carly Gulliver, led a team that advised the management of Accelya, a provider of financial and commercial solutions to the airline industry, on its merger with Mercator.
Hunt, who was appointed head of the Leeds Corporate team at the beginning of the year, said: “This year has continued in the same vein as the previous couple of years, and we’ve had a very busy time advising on some headline deals in the region and beyond.
“We’ve been pleased to support longstanding clients of the firm on some transformative transactions, while at the same time winning instructions from new clients, which has given us a good pipeline of work.”
Other notable transactions during this period also included:
Advising LDC on the management buyout of pest control product manufacturer Pelsis (Jonathan Jones).
Advising Pirtek Europe Limited on the acquisition of Slangakuten AB (Richard Hunt)
Advising construction supplier SIG plc on the sale of its flooring business to private equity company Endless (Paul Mann)
Advising Yorkshire Provender on its sale to the Hain Celestial Group (Richard Hunt)
Acting for the shareholders of Sirdar on the sale of the business to mid-market private equity manager, BlueGem Capital Partners (Paul Mann)
Acting for the shareholders of Internet Fusion on its sale to Newtyle Nominees (Richard Hunt)
