Private Equity Lawyers
PE to the core.
Our market-leading private equity lawyers are dedicated to advising investors, management teams and investee companies on all types of PE transactions across the UK and internationally.
We are immersed in the PE universe and PE to the core.
We have extensive experience of advising on all forms of private equity transactions, including investments, take privates, secondary sales, bolt-on acquisitions and exits, using our up-to-date knowledge of market practice.
Private equity transactions bring with them many challenges and competing dynamics – we ensure that we fully understand what is important to clients and that we are there for you at each step along the way.
Extensive sector experience.
Our clients transact across a wide range of industry sectors and a knowledge of how these businesses operate and the issues they face is key to providing relevant advice.
We have experience advising on a wide range of private equity deals across all sectors important to the economy, with particular expertise in Business Services, Consumer Services, Technology, Financial Services, Energy and Hospitality, Retail & Leisure.
We act for a wide range of PE investors and are proud of the long standing relationships we build with our clients. Successful PE transactions are driven by relationships, in addition to the “commercials” and our emphasis on a human and high performing culture perfectly mirrors this dynamic.
Each transaction is unique and our extensive experience combined with sector experience ensures we on hand to support PE investors whatever the transaction, from initial investments, secondary buyouts, co investments through to exits and listings. Our team prides itself on developing innovative solutions to achieve client objectives and has been at the forefront of many new transaction categories such as “take private lite” and “loan to own” transactions.
Examples of Investment and Exit experience include advising:
- Bluegem on the £300m sale of its stake in the iconic Liberty London
- Kester Capital on their acquisition of Optibrium Limited, a drug discovery software provider to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries
- Maven on its investment (alongside the Scottish Investment Bank) in Quorum Cyber Security Limited
We have extensive experience advising management teams on all forms of private equity transactions, including MBOs, secondary sales and exits. Our role is to achieve the best outcome for management in the context of the dynamics of the deal and in a manner which doesn’t prejudice management’s future relationship with its PE sponsor. Management teams are required to balance many competing interests during a transaction which requires measured, experienced and [commercial] legal advice.
With an up-to-date knowledge of market practice, particularly in relation to future equity and compensation arrangements, we ensure management’s position is protected and maximised. We work closely with our experienced tax team who provide expert structuring advice so as to optimise management’s tax position, taking account of, for example, employment related securities and entrepreneur’s relief considerations.
Examples of management team engagements include advising:
- management shareholders on the sale of Total Mobile, the UK’s leading Field Service Management software provider, to Bowmark
- management shareholders of The Foundry on the sale of the company by Hg to Roper Technologies for £400m
- management on the sale of Victoria Plum and MFI by TPG and management to Endless
We are ideally placed to help with investee company acquisitions. We have a full understanding of the dynamics at play in these transactions, including with reference to ongoing management participation, crafting appropriate earn-out structures, and the requirements of investors and lenders.
Examples of investee company acquisition experience includes advising:
- A-Plan Insurance (an Hg investee company) on its acquisitions of Endsleigh Insurance, Cotters Insurance Services and telematics insurance brand Ingenie
- Sovos Compliance LLC (an Hg investee company) on its acquisitions of FiscalReps and Accordance
- Marley (an Inflexion investee company) on its acquisition of Viridian Solar
Our funds lawyers advise leading international fund managers, investors, banks and law firms in connection with: Fund structuring, formation, raising and operation; Investments in private funds; Scottish limited partnerships in private funds and other structures; and carry limited partnerships.
We were at the forefront of the development of the use of Scottish limited partnerships in private fund structures and were involved in the first ever use of an SLP as a carry vehicle, over 20 years ago. This is our core business – we do it every day and invest heavily to make sure we remain at the cutting edge.
Our tax team works seamlessly with our PE lawyers to deliver corporate tax advice on M&A transactions, restructurings and PE investments. We bring a commercial approach to a highly technical area, offering sensible solutions to achieve tax efficient results.
Together, we provide specialist advice and deep market knowledge of tax efficient investment and acquisition structures, management equity incentivisation, employee incentives and share schemes.
Our PE team includes finance lawyers expert in both acquisition leveraged finance and funds finance. This unique proposition ensures we are at the forefront of developments and market changes in PE financing.
Our finance team is expert in a wide range of sectors and asset classes important to financial investors, including real estate finance, infrastructure project finance, renewables finance, oil & gas finance and securitisation/receivables finance.
Key contacts
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Mark Ellis
Head of Corporate and M&A
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Grant Stevenson
Corporate and M&A
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David Davidson
Corporate and M&A
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Catriona Macallan
Corporate and M&A
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Edward Hunter
Corporate and M&A