The Legal 500

London: Corporate and commercial

M&A: lower mid-market deals, £50m-£250m

Within: M&A: lower mid-market deals, £50m-£250m

The team at Stephenson Harwood is praised for its ‘excellent service, rapid document turnaround and real commitment to getting the deal done’. It handles public and private M&A in a wide variety of sectors; corporate head Andrew Edge is an expert in the healthcare and life sciences sectors and advised Acadia Healthcare on its £1.3bn acquisition of Priory Group. He also acted for ENGIE on its £330m acquisition of Keepmoat from TDR and Sun Capital and advised BTG on its acquisition of Galil Medical in a deal worth up to $110m. Duncan Stiles heads the London office's corporate finance offering and recently acted for Covanta on its strategic partnership with the Green Investment Group to develop, fund and own energy from waste projects in Ireland and the UK, with total enterprise value of €700m. Andrew McLean's real estate highlights included assisting SEA Group with the £260m acquisition of the corporate entities holding 33 Old Broad Street, London, and advising real estate investment fund Tristan Capital on the £245m acquisition of the company owning a portfolio of out of town shopping centres from Brockton Capital. Financial services and transport and logistics are other important sectors for the M&A practice, with key clients on these fronts including Kalibrate Technologies, Bowmark Capital and AET. The team augmented its private equity offering in 2017 with the hires of Jonathan Pittal , Warren Allan and Gabriel Boghossian from King & Wood Mallesons.

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Private equity: transactions

Within: Private equity: transactions

At Stephenson Harwood, group head Jonathan Pittal, Warren Allan and Gabriel Boghossian have continued to act for a number of their longstanding clients in midmarket transactions; Pittal and associate Pippa Byrne advised Bowmark Capital LLP and the other shareholders of Law Business Research (LBR) on the sale of LBR to Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Another highlight saw Pittal, Boghossian and Byrne act for Inspired Education in a strategic investment by TA Associates. The three partners also have a particularly strong track record in private equity secondary transactions, which has previously involved advising clients such as SL Capital Partners and Five Arrows on the acquisition of private equity portfolios. They also assist funds-of-funds and banks with portfolio sales. Elsewhere, the team undertakes a significant amount of transactional work in regulated sectors such as insurance and healthcare. Other key members of the group include Ben Mercer, Elizabeth Field, Tony Edwards, Andrew McLean and Sam Gray.

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London: Public sector

Healthcare

Within: Healthcare

The ‘very responsive’ team a Stephenson Harwood  ‘have an enviable knowledge’ of the healthcare industry and advise private sector clients on M&A deals, corporate transactions, restructuring and joint ventures.  Karima Hudson  is singled out for her ‘professional manner and wealth of experience’  in advising healthcare operators on M&A and corporate matters.  Recent instructions include acting for Salutem Healthcare on the acquisitions of Pathways Care Group, Modus Care and associated equity and debt financing arrangements. Jordan Hurwitz and Olivia Short ‘provide invaluable support’ are names to note. Jonathan Pittal  and Warren Allan  joined from King & Wood Mallesons.

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