SHEPHERD and Wedderburn’s corporate finance team advised on deals with an aggregate value of £6.03 billion in 2019.
The team, which was named Corporate and Commercial Team of the Year at the 2019 Scottish Legal Awards, advised on 85 deals globally in the year to December 2019, including a number of notable clean energy and technology-led transactions.
Clean energy deals included:
- acting for BayWa r.e. UK in the sale of Tralorg Wind Farm, an eight-turbine wind farm in South Ayrshire, to a newly incorporated company within the RPMI Railpen group;
- acting for Forsa Energy Limited in the sale of its Scottish onshore wind portfolio to BayWa r.e. UK Limited by way of the sale of the shares in its wholly-owned subsidiary Forsa Energy (UK) Limited; and
- acting for Viking Energy Shetland LLP in connection with the restructuring of Viking Energy Wind Farm LLP.
The firm also advised on technology/financial technology (fintech) deals including:
- acting for satellite broadband provider Bigblu Broadband plc on the £17 million demerger of its fixed wireless broadband subsidiary to a new company, QCL Holdings Limited, supported by a new revolving credit facility from HSBC UK Bank plc;
- acting for the shareholders in Scottish data analytics company deltaDNA in its sale to US-based game platform developer Unity Technologies;
- acting for TVSquared Limited, a leader in TV attribution, in connection with its Series C funding round led by West Coast Capital;
- acting for Scottish Enterprise in a £4.5 million further funding round into personal finance application Money Dashboard; and
- advising Scottish Enterprise in respect of its further investment into Symphonic Software Limited, an Edinburgh-based provider of access management software.
Corporate deals activity spanned a broad range of sectors in 2019, also including food and drink, funds and capital markets, media, hospitality and leisure, life sciences, healthcare, manufacturing and engineering.
Other notable deals completed in 2019 included:
- acting for Hillhouse Capital Management Limited in its purchase of Scotch whisky and white spirits producer Loch Lomond Distillery Group;
- acting for S2G Ventures in the Series A financing of Intelligent Growth Solutions, a provider of Agritech solutions;
- acting for Laird Investments (Pty) Limited in making a mandatory offer for Rangers International Football Club plc, under Rule 9 of the Takeover Code and as required by the Takeover Appeal Board’s decision of 30 March 2017;
- assisting regenerative medicine company Collagen Solutions Plc with a strategic investment, placing and open offer raising £5.96 million;
- acting for Scottish Enterprise in respect of a £9 million private equity investment into wearable health tech firm Current Health Limited, alongside Par Investment group, MMC Ventures Limited and others; and
- acting for a private individual in connection with the sale of shares in The Kilmarnock Football Club Limited and The Park Hotel Ayrshire Limited.
Commenting on 2019 corporate deals, George Frier, who leads Shepherd and Wedderburn’s corporate finance team, which is top-ranked in both the leading independent legal directories, said: “Our team had another very busy year, working on some of the largest and most notable transactions of 2019, including some requiring an innovative approach to complex regulatory and corporate structures.
“Activity was led by overseas investors and corporates looking to Scotland and the wider UK market for good quality acquisitions and investment opportunities, notably in the tech/fintech space, which remains particularly buoyant.”
