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Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013
WINNER - TIM JOBSON DEAL: Baldwins acquires Gravestock & Owen
NAME: Tim Jobson COMPANY: Jobsons Solicitors Limited
TEL: 01785 711568 EMAIL: Tim@jobsonssolicitors.co.uk WEBSITE: www.jobsonssolicitors.co.uk
DEAL OVERVIEW
Jobsons Solicitors Limited is a niche practice with two specialist departments – Company and Commercial law headed by Tim Jobson and Probate Wills and Trusts headed by Amy Glover.
Tim read law at Keble College Oxford, trained at Wragge & Co and then moved to West Bromwich to fulfil his wish to look after Black Country industrialists. There he soon met Malcolm Owen, who was setting up his own accountancy practice with Peter Gravestock. Over the years, Tim worked closely with them with a number of mutual clients and deals.
Peter Gravestock retired from the firm in 1994. The G & O Partnership became a company, with Malcolm and Keith Evans as the directors and shareholders. The long-term G & O game- plan was for Malcolm and Keith to retire this year. They had built up a far more substantial practice than one would expect for two partners, with very close relationships with their many clients, and they wished to ensure that the clients would be in good hands for the future. This made it difficult to find a suitable “fit”. Confidentiality was paramount, and Jobsons being out of town was a perceived advantage.
Terms were agreed with Baldwins for an asset sale and completion for February 2013.
Particular issues for the sale, in addition to maintaining confidentiality, were protecting the purchase price, ensuring a smooth handover, agreeing “gross recurring fees”, P.I. run off cover, staff and premises.
Tim Jobson worked with Kate Hackett of Wilkes Partnership acting for Baldwins. Tim is noted for focusing on the main issues, and his tenacity and keeping to the time table for the deal. On a number of deals over the years, Tim has been told by the other party “this deal would not have happened but for you” and this was one of those deals. The result is that Malcolm and Keith have been able to retire in accordance with their long term game-plan, with a sensible deal to ensure a smooth exit and transfer of their clients to Baldwins. It was an undoubted advantage that Tim worked closely with Malcolm and Keith over the years.
Tim has for 45 years specialised in sales and purchases of private companies, typically completing about six such transactions a year. He always tries to get to know the client reasonably well at the outset.
He thinks it
important to become involved before heads of terms are signed, and encourages aspiring sellers to complete a legal due diligence check on their company before the buyer has been identified.
Tim decided in 2011 that the way forward for him and for Amy was to establish a niche specialist practice. This works extremely well. Their small team ensures that the clients know who they are dealing with throughout. Since the credit crunch it has been difficult to match vendor expectation with prices buyers are willing to pay. Now that some confidence has returned to the economy in the latter part of 2013, there is a definite upsurge in transactional work, which hopefully will now continue into 2014.
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UK
Since the credit crunch it has been difficult to match vendor expectation with prices buyers are willing to pay.
Tim was also elected as president of Stafford Chamber of Commerce in October, and is using that role to promote and lobby with MPs and ministers for the interests of SMEs, and particularly as to the availability of bank funding and reduction of regulation.
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