The firm's Corporate team in Leeds won "Legal Team of the Year" last night at the 2017 Yorkshire Rainmaker Awards. This is the second consecutive year that the team has won this award. Organised by TheBusinessDesk, the annual awards for the corporate finance community were announced at a dinner at the Queens Hotel in Leeds.
In addition to winning Legal Team of the Year, the firm also won "International Deal of the Year" for advising Vp on its acquisition of Australian firm TR Pty for AU$17.4 million.
Head of the Leeds Corporate team, Richard Hunt, said: "I'm delighted that we have won Legal Team of the Year. This is the second consecutive year that we have won this award which, given the competition in the Leeds legal market, is a fantastic achievement and testimony to the commitment and support of everyone in this office and also colleagues from across the firm."
"These awards are hugely significant as they reflect the views of professionals that we work alongside in Leeds, those best-placed to judge our success. Legal Team of the Year was awarded to "the firm whose work has spanned not just one significant deal, but has been consistently at the heart of the key transactions in the region over the past 12 months," and we are proud to achieve this market-leading recognition once again."
The Leeds Corporate team advised on 20 transactions worth over £1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2017. Headline deals included the £750 million acquisition of Zenith by private equity investor Bridgepoint, the £103 million acquisition of Park Leisure and the Warburg Pincus-backed merger of travel services groups Accelya and Mercator.
Other notable transactions during this period also included:
- Advising construction supplier SIG plc on the sale of its flooring business to private equity company Endless
- Advising Yorkshire Provender on its sale to the Hain Celestial Group
- Acting for the shareholders of Sirdar on the sale of the business to mid-market private equity manager, BlueGem Capital Partners
- Acting for the shareholders of Internet Fusion on its sale to Newtyle Nominees
- Advising Zenith/Bridgepoint on the acquisition of Contract Vehicle Leasing.
Squire Patton Boggs was ranked Number 1 by volume and value of deals completed in Yorkshire & the Humber in Q1 2017 (Experian). The firm won Corporate & Commercial Team of the Year at the 2016 Yorkshire Legal Awards for the second consecutive year.