Corporate Team reports red hot summer
20th September 2017
Walker Morris reports a record total deal value for summer 2017
The Corporate Group at Walker Morris has seen a hugely successful summer with the completion of 17 deals with a total deal value of over £900m since May.
Although the market generally has seen a decrease in the total number of M&A and ECM transactions announced in the region for the first quarter of 2017, since then there has been a sharp rise in deal values, with £1.7bn confirmed so far in 2017 in comparison to £623m in the same time period in 2016 [1].
Walker Morris is ranked as one of the most active legal advisers in the region’s deals market and the summer has been no exception. The Firm has advised on a number of major deals over the summer including: advising Pelsis on the multimillion-pound Management Buy-out backed by LDC; advising eProcurement solutions specialists, PROACTIS, on its multijurisdictional acquisition of Perfect Commerce LLC and associated equity fundraisings and AIM admissions and advising Endless LLP and the management team on its sale of Imtech UK, a leading engineering services company, to EDF Energy Services. The Team also advised Endless and management on the sale of leading British pork supplier, Karro Food Group, to CapVest Partners.
Other notable deals for the Team include: advising Non-Standard Finance on its acquisition of personal loans business George Banco; advising the management team of leading food intolerance testing specialists, YorkTest Laboratories, on an investment by Key Capital Partners and more recently advising BGF on its investment in restaurant and deli chain, Filmore & Union.
John Hamer, Head of Corporate, commented:
“The summer period has been very busy with a significant increase in the value of the deals completing. The Corporate Team has had a hugely successful summer which is testament to the quality of our client base and our people. Our pipeline of opportunities looks good which stands us in good stead for the remainder of the year.”
The Team continues to be recognised for its strength and expertise in Legal 500 and Chambers and are ranked in Tier 1 by both directories as well as been considered as ‘National Leaders’ outside of London. The Corporate Team was also ranked as one of the UK’s top 20 most active law firms for M&A deals by Bloomberg.
The Team has also been shortlisted for The Corporate & Commercial Award at the 2017 Yorkshire Legal Awards and The Law Firm of the Year at the 2017 Yorkshire Insider Dealmakers.
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[1] Experian Business Research: Q1 2017 – United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland M&A Review
