Recent Transactions

Our Corporate group work on a wide variety of transactions for their clients, below is a selection of recent work

Client: Loewy Group Limited
Deal Size: £10 million
Goal: Acquisition of Brandpool Ltd 

DMH Stallard continues to advise Loewy following their £16m private equity investment in 2007. The Group’s most recent deal involved the acquisition of advertising and creative agency Brandpool for approximately £10million.

Loewy delivers design and brand communication services in major sectors including fmcg, food, drink, retail/fashion, tech/telecom, corporate/FTSE250, government/public sector and financial/professional services. DMH Stallard have advised Loewy for over ten years. 




Client: Valens Resources Group Plc
Deal Size: Undisclosed
Goal: Acquisition of Glazewing Ltd

DMH Stallard advised Jon and Simon Miles, the Kent-based entrepreneur brothers who last year sold municipal services company Verdant Group to Greenstar, in relation to their purchase of Glazewing Ltd. The brothers plan to build the company in the next few years into a significant independent metal recycling and ancillary services provider stretching east from the Wash to Southampton.

DMH Stallard’s Corporate lawyers worked with KPMG Corporate finance on the deal. Jonathan Grant lead the team and co-ordinated due diligence teams, including property, planning and environmental lawyers. DMH Stallard’s specialist banking team, lead by Gwen Godfrey, co-ordinated financing arrangements. We have also been retained following completion to deal with planning and environmental issues related to the acquisition. 




Client: The Friday Group
Deal Size: Various
Goal: Continuing buy and build strategy

Based in Hickstead, Sussex, The Friday Group – the largest independent publisher in the UK – has been growing continuously since its inception in 1975, when the current owners recognised an untapped market for local advertising. In November 2005 The Friday Group continue to instruct DMH Stallard on its business acquisition programme.

DMH Stallard continue to be instructed, recent deals include the expansion of the extreme sports sector with the acquisition of A1 Surf (surf) and GONEboarding (snow boarding). Dominic Travers (corporate) and John Yates (commercial due diligence) advised on these deals. We have also advised on a joint venture to set up an online interactive business directory www.brownbook.net, Jonathan Grant and Megan Hall advised. 




Client: Hallin Marine Subsea International PLC
Deal Size: £3 million
Goal: Strategic acquisition of Prospect Flow Solutions Ltd  

Hallin Marine Subsea International PLC provides underwater services to the marine, survey, cable and offshore oil & gas industries, and also vessels and diving systems to carry out subsea operations in the South East Asia region.

Prospect is a leading engineering solutions provider to the oil, gas and renewable energy sectors and is a specialist in computer-aided engineering. The acquisition gives Hallin a growing and successful subsea engineering consultancy business.

DMH Stallard advised Hallin on their IPO on the AIM market in April 2005. Following this the firm have continued to advise the company on a number of significant transactions including the disposal of SOV Ullswater for $44 million, and a £60 million refinancing to fund the purchase of the Windemere in 2007.

Park Holidays UK Ltd – Acquisition Programme
DMH Stallard: Vincent O'Brien and Mandy Yin

DMH Stallard continues to act for Park Holidays UK Ltd in relation to their continued strategy of acquiring holiday parks in the UK. Our client recently acquired the entire issued share capitals of Golden Sands Limited and Crumpwood Limited, both Targets operating in Devon. Vincent O’Brien and Mandy Yin of DMH Stallard’s Corporate team also handled detailed banking work necessary to complete the deal, with CMS Cameron McKenna acting for a syndicate of banks lead by the Royal Bank of Scotland. KPMG completed the financial due diligence and provided tax advice to Park Holidays UK Ltd. 

Azzurri Technology Group – Sale to Avnet Group
DMH Stallard: Keith Robinson and Nicola Baldwin

DMH Stallard acted for the shareholders of Azzurri Technology Limited in their sale to Avnet EMG Limited, a company in the Avnet group. Deal value was €13.2 million. Due to Azzurri 's European presence, DMH Stallard also assisted the shareholders with the European Competition Law aspects of the transaction which included providing and verifying data to the relevant Competition Authorities in Austria, Germany and Slovakia.

Equiniti Ltd - Acquisition of Trust Research Services
DMH Stallard: Dominic Travers and John Yates

DMH Stallard advised Equiniti, the UK’s leading provider of share registration services, in relation to their acquisition of lost asset recovery specialists Trust Research Services Limited (TRS). TRS, based in Sevenoaks in Kent, specialises in the research, identification and location of unclaimed assets, helping beneficiaries to submit claims and completing all the necessary paperwork on their behalf. Dominic Travers (corporate) led the DMH Stallard team, assisted by Hannah Wilkins (property) and John Yates (commercial).


PELHAM

Pelham International Limited
DMH Stallard: Jonathan Grant and John Yates

Pelham International Limited, based in London, is a specialist executive search firm for finance professionals. Its associated company, Pelham Search Pacific Limited, is a leader in the same field in Hong Kong. DMH Stallard advised the management teams of both Pelham companies on their respective MBOs from Pasona Group Inc. Under these deals, the acquirer paid an undisclosed sum to the Nikkei-listed Pasona. 
 

Sale of NTC Economics Ltd
DMH Stallard: Patrick Gilmour
DMH Stallard advised the shareholders of NTC Economics Limited, a leading provider of economic data to the financial markets in the UK and Europe. The principal shareholder of the company has been a retained client of the firm for over twenty years. The company was acquired by Markit Group Holdings Limited, one of the fastest growing data providers in the world for an undisclosed sum.  

Crane Telecommunications
DMH Stallard: Stephen Clow and Nicola Baldwin

DMH Stallard has acted for Crane since it was founded almost twenty years ago. Crane is a value added distributor of telecommunications products produced by manufacturers such as Nortel, Samsung and BT. We represented the major shareholders, including Apax Partners and company founder David George, on the disposal of the company to Datatec Limited. Datatec is an international information and communications technology group which is dual listed in Johannesburg and London.




Royal Haskoning
DMH Stallard: Stephen Clow and Nicola Baldwin

Royal Haskoning is a worldwide consultancy group of engineers, architects, and environmental scientists, involved in some of the world's most prestigious projects. We represented it on two strategic acquisitions, David Wilson Partnership and First Marine International.




Novagraaf
DMH Stallard: Keith Robinson and Katya Cleere

The firm represented the UK arm of Novagraaf in relation to their acquisition of the Innovation Development Limited group, which includes QED Intellectual Property Limited and Hillgate Patent Services, on 1st February 2008. The Novagraaf Group are leading European advisors and consultants, expert in all aspects of Intellectual Property matters, including Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Copyright, Know How, Licensing and Technology Commercialisation with offices in the United Kingdom in London, Manchester, Norwich and York and in the rest of Europe in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Geneva.

Pall Mall Investment Management Ltd
PE Provider: Nomura
DMH Stallard: Vincent O’Brien

Leading Japanese financial services group, Nomura, has acquired an equity interest in London based specialist asset management company, Pall Mall Investment Management Ltd (PMIM). PMIM is a high-yield investment management company specialising in European high-yield and balanced portfolios and currently has over one billion US dollars under management.  

 
Deutsch UK
Acquisition of Servo Interconnect
DMH Stallard: Justine Tocher

DMH Stallard acted for Deutsch UK on the acquisition of the remaining 50% of its joint venture company, Servo Interconnect Limited from Servo & Electronic Sales Limited. Servo Interconnect Limited assembles and distributes autosport products. Deutsch UK are a long-standing client of the firm. They are a world leader in their field offering expertise in the design and manufacture of electrical connectors and fibre optic connectors, electro-mechanical relays, specialised electronics, and associated components.