Mergers & Acquisitions

Clients and work in this area include:

• Advised Playtech Limited on its acquisition of certain online gaming marketing assets, businesses and contracts from affiliates and other third parties for a total consideration of up to US$250m and the onsale of the majority of these assets to William Hill in return for a 29% interest in the enlarged William Hill Online business.
• Acted for Macquarie Bank Limited on its disposal of South East Water Ltd to Hastings Fund Management Ltd., an Australian infrastructure and alternative investment fund for £665.4m.
• Acted for AMEC plc on the strategically important divestment of its Built Environment Divisions.  Deal value £320m.
• Advised on the recommended offer to acquire Monsoon plc by Drillgreat Limited.  The offer valued the entire issued share capital of Monsoon at approximately £755m.
• Acted for Mid Europa on the acquisition of Austrian mobile operator, One GmbH, for an enterprise value of about €1.4bn.  Mid Europa acquired a 65% stake in the company, alongside minority shareholder, France Telecom.
• Acted for Lydian Capital Partners LP on the acquisition of the Castlebeck group from HG Capital and existing management for £255m.
• Acted for Trident Gaming on the £25m cash and share acquisition of Gamebookers Group and its subsequent sale to PartyGaming for £102m.
• Advised Tops Estates on its recommended takeover by Land Securities which valued Tops Estates at approximately £517.2m.
• Advised the shareholders of Scottish distiller Whyte & Mackay on its sale to Indian-based United Spirits Limited the flagship of the UB Group, for £595m.
• Advised the board of Thames Water on the sale from German utilities group RWE to Macquarie Bank.  Deal value: £8bn.
• Acted for Misys plc, on the sale of its general insurance broking systems business, Misys General Insurance (MGI) to a newly formed company managed by the existing MGI management team and backed by funds advised by Montagu Private Equity Limited for £181.9million.
• Advised Sasol Chemical Industries Limited (Sasol) in its demerger of US$307m worldwide joint venture of Sasol acrylic acid and acrylates business with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) effected through the acquisition by Sasol of MCC’s equity interest in the JV.
• Advised Balfour Beatty on a range of deals including the acquisition of Covion from its management and private equity investors and the acquisition of Servo Rail Technologies from Serco Limited.
• Acted for corporate and institutional stockbroker, Panmure Gordon, on the US$62.3m acquisition of US-based investment bank, ThinkEquity Partners LLC.
• Advised Rocco Forte Hotels on the sale of The St David’s Hotel & Spa in Cardiff to Principal Hotels. 
• Advised retail entrepreneur LK Bennett, on the £100m sale of high-street fashion chain, LK Bennett, to mid-market private equity investor, Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity.
• Acted for corporate client Luminar plc, on its £95.8m disposal of its Entertainment Division and related equity transaction.
• Acted for global information solutions company Experian in respect of its acquisition from Talgentra of the Tallyman debt collections management software and operations.  Tallyman is used by clients in the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific.
• Advised VINCI PLC on its £74m acquisition of one of Taylor Wimpey’s divisions, Taylor Woodrow Construction.