The world of private equity is constantly evolving – new trends, structures, sectors and participants. Certain things, however, remain constant: the search for profitable investment opportunities, the relationships between owners, managers and investors and the need for funding as a catalyst for growth and development.
Why we are different
Our position as a firm, with a strong focus on both private and institutional work, has given us a unique vantage point from which to observe the merging of the worlds of private wealth and institutional activity. Our Private Equity Group represents a key component of the Firm's Corporate focus on Private Capital and Ventures. Acting not only for some of the UK's most established private equity houses we also advise many new entrant investors – family offices, sovereign funds and high net worth individuals – investee companies, founders and management teams.
We are alive to the commercial issues that underpin deals. Understanding our clients' needs means we are well placed to make connections, generate opportunities and provide guidance through many successful deals.
In addition to our core UK practice, there is a distinctly international perspective to our work. We are culturally aware and have the logistical know-how to handle multi-jurisdictional deals.
Services
The Group advises on all aspects of private equity, acting for private equity funds, family offices, sovereign funds, HNWIs, sellers of owner-managed businesses into private equity, debt lenders, investee companies, founders and management teams on both UK and international transactions.
We structure and negotiate all forms of private equity investments, such as:
- MBO/MBI
- growth/development capital investments
- equity and debt restructurings
- public-to-private transactions
We also have specialist groups in the areas of finance and banking, funds & financial services, tax, commercial, real estate, employment, competition and IP, offering comprehensive transactional and advisory support.
Experience
- Advising on the £20 million co-investment of growth capital by Scottish Equity Partners and Business Growth Fund in SkyDox Limited, provider of cloud-enabled document collaboration software and the associated joining of forces with Workshare Limited
- Advising Piper PE on its investment in Frame and its disposal of Weird Fish
- Acting for BlueGem Capital Partners on the secondary MBO of Enotria from LivingBridge
- Acting for Chamonix Private Equity and management as both sellers and as reinvesting management on the secondary buy out of Mettis Aerospace backed by Stirling Square Capital Partners
- Advising Barclays Natural Resources and the management sellers on the secondary buyout of UK Power Reserve (Holdings) Limited by a company backed by Equistone Private Equity and Inflexion Private Equity
- Advising US fund Firebird Management LLC on the sale of its investment in Surestream Petroleum
- Advising NEO Investment Partners on its acquisition and investment in businesses such as luxury retailer Miller Harris, and online retailer Scarosso
- Advising Woodford Investment Management on its unquoted investments including investments in Biofem, Cosmederm, Stratified Medical, Atom Bank, Advanced Plasma Theraputics, Propelair, Spin Transfer technologies, Novabiotics , Gigaclear and Ratesetter