The Legal 500

Work Department

Business and finance.

Position

Corporate finance (flotations and secondary issues), public company takeovers, M&A, disposals, joint ventures, advising quoted companies on their obligations to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange, general company and commercial law. Recent experience includes: acted for Cape plc (market cap £610m) on its restructuring by way of a scheme of arrangement to put in place a new UK listed Jersey-incorporated parent company (tax resident in Singapore and Jersey) for the Cape Group and Cape’s simultaneous step up from AIM to the main market of the London Stock Exchange; acted for Cenkos Securities (as Nomad & placing agent) on the £15m placing of ordinary shares for AIM-quoted Brady plc; acted for Clipper Windpower Plc on its recommended cash takeover/acquisition by United Technologies Corporation (by way of a scheme of arrangement), valuing Clipper at £939.5m; acted for Cenkos Securities as Nomad & placing agent for ASX-quoted Wasabi Energy Ltd on the admission of its shares to trading on AIM and associated £5m placing of ordinary shares, acted for Virtue Fusion Ltd, a leading developer and licensor of online Bingo products, and its shareholders on the sale of the Virtue Fusion business to AIM-quoted, Playtech Ltd for £29m, together with a one year earn-out of up to a further £7m; acted for RBC Capital Markets (as Nomad & joint placing agent) and Astaire Securities plc (as joint placing agent) in relation to the acquisition by AIM-quoted, West African Diamonds plc of Stellar Diamonds Ltd, £5m placing of ordinary shares and re-admission of the enlarged group to trading on AIM; acted for iNTERTAIN Group on its acquisition of 60 Walkabout’ bars, ‘Jongleurs’ comedy clubs and ‘Old Orleans’ restaurants from the joint administrators of the Regent Inns group for £65m; acted for Golden Prospect Precious Metals Ltd on its £7.6m placing of ordinary shares, cancellation of the trading in its securities on AIM and admission to the ITBB (as well as the CISX) and further £3.7m placing of ordinary shares; acted for Collins Stewart (as Nomad & joint placing agent) and Mirabaud Securities (as joint placing agent) on the £7.0m placing of ordinary shares for AiM-quoted, Gas Turbine Efficiency plc; acted for FiveTen Group, the private recruitment group, on its separate acquisitions of Greythorn Holdings Ltd, Ashsale Ltd (Marks Sattin), Laurence Simons International Recruitment partnership business, EMR Search & Selection Ltd and Antal International Russia Ltd; acted for Accsys Technologies plc on its secondary listing on Euronext Amsterdam and associated €61.5m Offering; acted for Entertainment Rights plc on its US $305m acquisition of Classic Media Holdings, Inc., its related £71m Placing & Open Offer and new £138m loan facilities with Bank of Scotland.

Career

Trained at Speechly Bircham 1983-85; assistant solicitor Herbert Smith 1985-90; assistant solicitor Berwin Leighton Paisner 1990-94; partner Lawrence Graham LLP 1994 to date.

Member

City of London Solicitors’ Company.

Practice Areas

Corporate finance; Flotations (small and mid-cap); M&A