Abigail Owen > DMH Stallard LLP > Crawley, England > Lawyer Profile

DMH Stallard LLP
Griffin House
135 High Street
RH10 1DQ
England

Work Department

Corporate

Position

Senior Corporate Counsel.

Career

Abigail works across London and the South East but primarily in the Gatwick and Brighton areas and has been a leading corporate lawyer in the region for more than 20 years.

Her reputation is that of a dealmaker forging strong commercial alliances to drive deals that add value to clients.  As one of the ‘go to’ lawyers in the south east, she advises on complex regional, national and international M&A transactions involving a range of business types and industries.

Her experience extends to advising on mergers, investment, shareholder and JV arrangements, restructuring, banking and re-financing, non-contentious insolvency and corporate governance work; her key speciality is corporate sales and acquisitions.

Clients include entrepreneurs, owner-managers, mid-market companies, SMEs, PLCs, international corporates, private equity, banks and financial institutions, joint venture parties, LLPs, partnerships and individuals.

Her broad sector experience covers services such as insurance and recruitment through to manufacturing, retail & distribution, and service industries.

Work highlights

  • Advising the shareholder of leading IFA and wealth management company Skerritt Consultants Limited on £55m private equity investment
  • Advising the shareholder of a leading stockist and reseller of IT equipment on share sale and major private equity investment
  • Acting for a leading English wine producer in relation to an investment by a third party private investor and the buy out of minority shareholders
  • Advising on the private equity investment into Lightning Fibre Limited, an infrastructure supplier involving fibre-to-premises, by Foresight Group
  • Advising on the sale of Ashtons Hospital Pharmacy Services Ltd, involving a management buy-out backed by a private equity investment by LDC
  • Advising on the sale of Posturite Limited, a UK-based market-leading ergonomics company, to US global office supplies manufacturer, Fellowes International Group
  • Advising on the sale of specialist health and safety e-learning provider Workrite Ltd to Ideagen PLC
  • Advising Southdown Holdings Limited and Sutton Business Centre Limited on the sale of their substantial property businesses at Sutton Business Park and Sutton Business Centre to Netherlands based industrial and commercial property group, Capital Industrial B.V.
  • Advising Broomer Farm Investments Limited on the share acquisition of Harbour Way Country Club Group
  • Advising on the sale of specialist family owned insurer, Highworth Insurance Limited to the Aston Lark Group, one of the top five chartered insurance brokers in the country
  • Advising on the sale of British Converting Solutions, the UK’s leading manufacturer of box making machinery, to German buyer, Kolbus, part of an international group
  • Acting for Hunt and Palmer PLC on its share acquisition of Aircraft Chartering Services Limited

Languages

English

Memberships

Personal awards

Abigail was named South East Corporate Lawyer of the Year in two consecutive years at the Insider Dealmakers Awards and was shortlisted again in 2020 and 2021. She won Private Equity/Venture Capital Deal of the Year 2021 for her work on the sale of Lightning Fibre to Foresight Group, a leading infrastructure and private equity investment manager, with several other deals she was involved in also being shortlisted.  Abigail also won Corporate Deal of the Year in 2018 acting on the sale of a minority stake in Posturite Limited to US international group Fellowes.

In the press

In addition to Abigail’s deals being reported in the media, she also provides commentary to regional business magazines.  Most recently she contributed to a feature on International Women’s Day 2021 in Dynamic Magazine.

Lawyer Rankings

South East > Corporate and commercial > Corporate and commercial: Kent, Surrey, Sussex

(Leading individuals)

Abigail OwenDMH Stallard LLP

DMH Stallard LLP excels in complex and high-value deals for national and multinational brands in the e-learning, vineyard and travel sectors. The firm has grown a local Brighton M&A practice through its merger with Griffith Smith LLP in March 2022. Heading up the team from Gatwick is corporate expert Jonathan Grant, who has significant experience in transactions involving management buyouts and buy-ins as well as business sales, and commercial lead John Yates, who regularly acts on IP projects, complex IT contracts and data protection matters. Based in Guildford is Helen Mead, who specialises in share and asset acquisitions and disposals, investments, and private equity matters. Abigail Owen is also noted for her work in complex regional, national and international M&A transactions across a range of industries. Debbie Venn is another key lawyer.