In 2024, the DWF Corporate Team had another very successful year by continuing to focus on its core sector strengths and bringing that knowledge to its clients’ deals.
In deal value terms TMT transactions stood out as the highest value area for the team, with notable highlights such as advising Calibre Scientific on a number of European deals, including five acquisitions of UK life sciences tools and diagnostics companies, NorthEdge on the sale of CMAP software and the management shareholders on the investment by ECI Partners and acting for Daisy in its merger with Wavenet, creating the UK’s largest independent IT managed services provider.
Within its market leading Venture Capital Group the team advised Pastest, the provider of technologically driven test preparation solutions, on its minority equity investment in The Medic Life and Scottish National Investment Bank on a number of different investments in the technology sector including in Utopi Ltd, Cyacomb, Travelnest and Pneumowave and social impact venture capital investor, Nesta, on its investment in Gaia Learning Limited.
The financial services sector accounted for a substantial portion of DWF's corporate transactions, with the team advising on 43 deals in this sector. Many of these deals were completed by the Private Equity Group including advising Inflexion on the sale of Southport-based broker David Roberts & Partners to BMS Group, Sovereign Capital Partners investment in LB Group (subsequently rebranded Affinia) as a buy and build accountancy practice platform acquisition and AssuredPartners on its acquisition of leading independent Lloyd's broker, the Harman Kemp group.
The team also advised on a number of high-profile real estate deals throughout the UK & Ireland in 2024, including acting for Dandara Group in the sale of its newly developed build to rent (BTR) scheme to Europa and advising LXi REIT on the £210m corporate and asset sale of a portfolio of 66 Travelodge-branded hotels to Travelodge Hotels Ltd.
Frank Shephard, Global Head of Corporate at DWF, said: "The breadth and scale of transactions we advised on in 2024 reflect the strength and adaptability of our UK & Ireland corporate team. Despite a challenging year in many ways, where markets have suffered from subdued liquidity and a slowdown in activity, our corporate team has remained exceptionally busy and continued to deliver strong results. That has been achieved by our one team approach where the whole team works as one, and bringing technology and process efficiency to everything we do for our clients.
Looking ahead, we anticipate continued private equity and venture capital activity, with funds and corporate acquirers poised to deploy unused capital and take advantage of new international business momentum in 2025. As market conditions continue to shift, our commitment to excellence and client service ensures we are well-positioned to drive further success in the year ahead."
For a deep dive into key trends and insights from the past 12 months of transactional activity within the UK/I Corporate team, please download our report here.
