deals update


Sale of Abritas to Civica


Completion Date: 15/12/16 Target: Abritas Acquirer: Civica UK Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Spectrum Corporate Finance successfully advised the shareholders on the sale of Reading-based Abritas, to Civica UK, owned by The Civica Group. Abritas provides web-based application software to the UK social housing sector. Spectrum ran a full marketing process and the business attracted interest from global trade buyers


Corporate Finance Advisers: Spectrum – Clive Hatchard, Iain McKenzie and Richard Boyden


Legal Advisers: Clark Holt: Richard Clark Financial Due Diligence: EY Commercial Due Diligence: Credo Business Consulting LLP


Acquisition of Vertical Transportation


Completion Date: 15/12/16 Target: Vertical Transportation Acquirer: City Lifting Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Freeths acted for City Lifting, a well established crane hire company located in Essex, in its strategic acquisition of Leighton Buzzard-based Vertical Transportation. The acquisition increases the number of cranes in the City Lifting fleet and extends the geographical reach of the business


Legal Advisers: Freeths, Oxford (Tom Walker – corporate; Claire Boyce – tax) for the acquirer. Gateley plc for the sellers


Investment in IconX


Sipsmith and Beam Suntory join together in strategic partnership


Completion Date: Exchange of contracts 14/12/2016. Completion 5/1/2017


Target: Sipsmith Acquirer: Suntory UK Holdings Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Beam Suntory, the third largest spirits company in the world, has acquired a controlling interest in Sipsmith, the well-known London-based distiller, in a strategic partnership to deliver global growth in the premium gin market


Legal Advisers: Oliver Pilkington of Pitmans LLP


Completion Date: 12/16 Target: IconX Acquirer: Connection Capital LLP Deal Value: £4.6 million


Details: HMT LLP, led by directors Peter Wear and Holly Bedford-Bell, and partner Andrew Thomson, advised the shareholders of IconX, an innovative British manufacturer of semi-automated key cutting machines, on its fundraising supported by Connection Capital


Funding: Connection Capital Corporate Finance Advisers: HMT


Legal Advisers: Gateley (Connection Capital), Blake Morgan (management) Financial Due Diligence: Grant Thornton – Bristol Commercial Due Diligence: Latitude


Sale of MTI Europe Project Berlin


Completion Date: 22/12/16 Target: BK Holdings Acquirer: GL Education Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Freeths advised the selling shareholders on the sale of Boardworks, the publisher of educational software designed and the company behind Doddle, the formative assessment platform, to the GL Education group


Corporate Finance Advisers: Critchleys LLP


Legal Advisers: Freeths, Oxford (Leon Arnold & Malin Svanberg Larsson – corporate; Claire Boyce – tax) for the selling shareholders. Roxburgh Milkins for the acquirer


Completion Date: 09/01/17 Target: MTI Europe, owned by US-based private equity fund Garnett and Helfrich Capital LLP Acquirer: Endless Private Equity Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Spectrum Corporate Finance has successfully advised the shareholders of US-based private equity fund Garnett and Helfrich Capital on the sale of portfolio business MTI Europe to UK-based private equity firm Endless LLP. MTI is a market-leading provider of IT storage infrastructure and security solutions. The business attracted interest from global trade and private equity buyers


Funding: Endless Private Equity: Ed Ransome, Francesco Santinon and David Isaacs


Corporate Finance Advisers: Spectrum – Clive Hatchard, James Mines and Iain McKenzie


Sale of The Leisure Pass Group Holdings


Completion Date: 16/12/16 Target: The Leisure Pass Group Holdings


Acquirer: Exponent Private Equity Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Spectrum Corporate Finance and international legal practice Osborne Clarke have advised the senior management team on the sale of the business to Exponent Private Equity, which invests in UK- headquartered businesses with enterprise values between £75 million and £350m. Leisure Pass is a leading city attraction pass provider with operations in 19 major international cities across Europe and North America


Corporate Finance Advisers: Spectrum – Simon Davies (management advisory); Harris Williams & Co (sell-side)


Legal Advisers: Osborne Clarke (Greg Leyshon, Mark Saunders and Louise Stuart-Buddery) legal advisers to management; Cooley: Stephen Rosen (sell-side)


Legal Advisers: DAC Beechcroft (MTI); Cooley (Garnett and Helfrich); Eversheds (Endless)


Financial Due Diligence: BDO Kynetec


Completion Date: 11/16 Target: Agriculture and Animal Health Sectors of Ipsos North America


Acquirer: Kynetec Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: Kynetec’s acquisition of the agriculture and animal health sectors of Ipsos North America. The corporate finance team at James Cowper Kreston provided lead advisory and financial due diligence services to the acquirer


Corporate Finance Advisers: James Cowper Kreston Legal Advisers: Addleshaw Goddard Financial Due Diligence: James Cowper Kreston


Sportsafe UK


Completion Date: 22/12/16 Target: Sportsafe UK Acquirer: Abeo Sports Group (France) Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: French sports and leisure equipment designer ABEO has acquired an 80% stake in Sportsafe UK. Sportsafe UK inspects, services and installs sports and fitness equipment, serving more than 15,000 customer sites primarily in schools and universities. With around 90 employees, the company generates 60% of revenue from repair and maintenance contracts


Corporate Finance Advisers: BCMS (James Pugh) Legal Advisers: Harrison Clark Rickerbys (Rebecca Leask)


Sale of Odeon and UCI Cinemas


Completion Date: 28/11/16 Target: Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group Acquirer: AMC Theatres Deal Value: £921 million sale


Details: Osborne Clarke has advised the management team of Odeon and UCI Cinemas Group on the group’s sale to AMC Theatres, the largest cinema operator in the US


Corporate Finance Advisers: Goldman Sachs


Legal Advisers: Osborne Clarke LLP (Greg Leyshon and Mark Saunders) legal advisers to management; Pinsent Masons LLP acted for the purchaser, AMC Theatres; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted for Terra Firma


Allworld Exhibitions


Completion Date: 13/12/16 Target: Allworld Exhibitions Acquirer: UBM plc Deal Value: $485 million (circa £380m)


Details: UBM, a leading global B2B events organiser, has announced the acquisition of Allworld Exhibitions for a cash consideration of $485m. Allworld is the leading privately-owned Asian exhibitions business operating 51 tradeshows in 11 countries and across nine industry sectors. Allworld generated revenues of $97.2 m and EBITDA of $37.6 m (38.7% margin) during the 12 months ended June 30, 2016


Corporate Finance Advisers: BCMS Legal Advisers: Harrison Clark Rickerbys (Rebecca Leask)


SoundField sale


Completion Date: 18/11/16 Target: SoundField (from TSL Products) Acquirer: The Freedman Electronics Group Deal Value: Undisclosed


Details: TSL Products – the leading designer and manufacturer of solutions in the television broadcast, cable, satellite, IPTV and IT industries based in Marlow – sold the surround sound recording marque, SoundField to The Freedman Electronics Group


Legal Advisers: B P Collins, Victoria Holland and Lucy Newman, corporate (for the seller); Birketts (for the buyer)


continued overleaf ... THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2017 businessmag.co.uk 23


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