Corporate deals: six month round up

Hush

We advised leading fashion label Hush run by husband and wife partnership Rupert Youngman and Mandy Watkins, on a major investment into the company by private equity investor True Capital. The investment opens up opportunities for the business to expand internationally and work with other retailers.

Pedersoli, acting for Ambienta

We delivered full service advice for all transactional matters falling under UK law in relation to the acquisition of Create Flavours Limited by Nactarome, an international flavours business backed by Italian private equity house, Ambienta. Create Flavours specialise in high-quality natural flavourings for food manufacture. The acquisition strengthened Nactarome Group’s leading position  in the sector in Europe.

Iontas

We acted on the sale of Iontas (based in Cambridge) to FairJourney Biologics (based in Portugal) for founding shareholder Dr John McCafferty. Both organisations specialise in antibody discovery, and the partnership will allow faster identification of effective antibodies with a higher chance of success in development.

Foresight Group

We advised Foresight on all aspects of its £5 million investment into McIntyre Electrical, a leading provider of fire and electrical safety services, to support a buy-in management buyout. This was the first investment from the £100 million Foresight East of England Fund

Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings

We advised R&Q on two significant investments; US$80 million subscription by Brickell Insurance Holdings, an investment vehicle controlled by over 700 partners and a US$20 million subscription by funds managed by Hudson Structured Capital Management.

Aggregate proceeds from both investments will be utilised primarily to invest in the growth of R&Q’s program management and legacy businesses.

Midwich Group

We acted for Midwich Group a specialist AV distributor on its acquisition of Starin Marketing Inc, in Indiana, USA. The new partnership means that the company will broaden its support to international customers and acquire new vendors.  

PayPoint

We advised PayPoint PLC on a deal with Yodel to take full ownership of Collect+, the UK's largest parcel network. Collect+ was set up as a joint venture between PayPoint and Yodel in 2009, to provide a simple, local and accessible service for people to send parcels, return parcels or click and collect. The deal means PayPoint has now acquired the 50% of shares that were previously owned by Yodel.

My Home Move, part of Simplify group

My Home Move were advised on its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Cook Taylor Woodhouse Solicitors, a top 15 UK conveyancer based in London and the South East, and Lampthink Limited, a franchisee of a national property search provider. My Home Move is part of the Simplify group of volume conveyancers.

Nippon Active Value Fund

As well as its initial public offering on the Specialist Fund Segment of the London Stock Exchange, we advised Nippon Active Value Fund in relation to its incorporation and establishment as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). We also worked on the establishment of its relationships with other service providers (such as its custodian, prime broker, registrar and receiving agent) and putting in place the company’s governance policies and procedures.

Flusso

We advised the investors on their participation in a £5.7 million funding round for Flusso, a semiconductor company spun out of the University of Cambridge, to scale up production of the world’s smallest flow sensor. Flusso’s unique mirco-technology is used in everything from boilers to ventilators. The tiny flow meter monitors the movement of gas or liquid. Flusso enables flow sensors to be made significantly smaller and more cheaply, with better functionality and no loss of performance.

Predict, a subsidiary of Agrolimen

Predict, a subsidiary of pet food supplier Agrolimen, were advised on all aspects of its investment in Anexhold Limited, part of the Natures Menu group. The investment saw Agrolimen exercise its third call option agreement to increase its stake from 50% to 100%. A number of corporate finance advisers expect the pet food space to boom over the next few years.

IQ Capital Growth Fund

Longstanding client IQ capital have had a busy first half of the year. We advised on their participation in: three major deals; an $80 million Series C funding round for Privitar, a leading data privacy platform provider; an $83m Series B funding round in Thought Machine, a cloud native core banking technology firm and a $20 million Series B funding round in Concirrus, a leading marine and automotive insurtech firm.

Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation bringing to life ideas for the public good and working across the creative economy, government, education and health. We helped them set up an arts and culture investment fund which will provide financial support and increased financial resilience for a multitude of charities, community interest companies and museums, amongst others, to promote and encourage engagement in the arts. The fund is UK-wide and also aims to promote the transformative impact that the arts and culture sector has on communities.

F-star Therapeutics

Mills & Reeve life sciences team acted on the major deal undertaken for F-star Therapeutics on reverse merger with NASDAQ-listed Spring Bank Pharmaceutical. This was a significant and strategic transaction for F-star and will help to drive its growth and development. Their technology assets are focused on transforming the lives of patients with cancer through the development of innovative tetravalent bispecific (mAb2™) antibodies.