Archive

November 2004
LAB advised on the sale of Generis Technology Information Systems for £10 million to Generis Technology Holdings Limited. Funding was provided by Rothschild and Barclays. The LAB team included Maggie Lawson and Andrew Shearer.

October 2004
LAB advised the owner of several companies developing products for the dental market on a group restructuring and private equity fund-raising. Maggie Lawson and Andrew Shearer provided financial and tax-planning support to the new holding company.

June 2004
LAB acted for Scarletrain Limited and James Kite and Mike Dennison on their 3 million BIMBO of Collinda Limited, the Surrey based chemical distribution business. Andrew Lawson led the team, which provided due diligence for both HSBC and the team and provided taxation deal structure advice.

May 2004
LAB acted for the shareholders of Easily Limited, providing tax and corporate finance advice in connection with the sale of the entire issued share capital to Netbenefit plc.

February 2004
Led by Maggie Lawson, LAB has carried out another Financial Due diligence exercise for North West Equity Fund. NWEF were approached by Virtalis Limited of Sale, Cheshire, specialists in Virtual Reality and advanced visualisation. LAB reported less than two weeks after initial instructions and the deal, whereby NWEF will invest up to £400k, was completed on 9 February 2004.

November 2003
WH Ireland Group acquisition of Ingram Phillips. LAB were retained for financial due diligence and also provided WH Ireland with the valuation report required under S103 of the Companies Act 1985. Stephen Blank, director of LAB who was responsible for the assignments, said: "These were our first assignments for WH Ireland. We hope this is just the start. LAB has been gaining increasing numbers of due diligence assignments from large corporates, banks and VC Institutions in recent months and years. We think this is because clients want their assignments to be led by principals who have extensive business experience. We are able to give a commercial view point that adds more value for clients."

October 2003
Gillian Johnson FCA has joined LAB as a Director, specialising in strategy development, mergers and acquisitions and change management.

Prior to joining LAB, Gillian was Strategy and Corporate Development Director for Reality Group and Business Development Director for Kelda plc. Gillian has also held senior posts in KPMG and PwC and has spent two years in merchant banking.

Latterly, she established a successful consulting business specialising in change management and business reorganisation which will compliment LAB’s service offering.

As a consequence of her appointment, LAB is opening a Leeds office where Gillian will be based, together with Andrew Shearer, the existing Director of Taxation.

Andrew Lawson, LAB’s Managing Director, said: “This is a significant development for us. In addition to complimenting our corporate finance resource, Gillian’s appointment expands our offering to the larger corporates, particularly in the areas of change management. We have been considering expanding into Leeds for some time and it is a natural extension to our existing corporate finance activities along the M62 corridor.”

September 2003
Stephen Blank was appointed Non-Executive Chairman of the Premises Networks Management plc Board.

July 2003
LAB was retained by Paul Hinkins to assist in his acquisition of Business Watch Guarding Limited in Telford. In addition to general corporate finance advice, LAB performed due diligence and taxation restructuring.

Associated firm Haslam Tunstall, were appointed auditors and performed the S151 “white wash”.

Andrew Lawson led the LAB team and has been retained in an on-going advisory capacity.

Paul Hinkins said: “I cannot speak highly enough of the professionalism of LAB”.

July 2003
LAB-Haslams was retained by Bank of Scotland to perform a pre-lending review into the £2.75m re-banking of a major car retailing group.

The exercise was led by Andrew Lawson. Financial forecasting advice was provided by Maggie Lawson.

May 2003
LAB-Haslams was retained by Dixon Adflow Limited and its US parent, Dixon Valve Company, to conduct financial due diligence for the proposed acquisition of Artemia Koopholding BV, located in Merchten, Brussels. The exercise was led by Andrew Lawson and assisted by Van Buynder & Co. of Antwerp, LAB-Haslam’s associate firm in Belgium.

April 2003
LAB was retained by Matrix Equity Capital of Saville Row, London and HSBC Bank Croydon Regional Office to conduct financial due diligence for the funding of the BIMBO of Envelopes Plus (Holdings) Limited based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. The exercise was led by Andrew Lawson and Maggie Lawson with taxation advice and deal structuring being provided by Andrew Shearer.

Post deal follow-up work is anticipated.

March 2003
Premises Networks Management plc (PNM) – due diligence
Stephen Blank led a team, including a manager from Haslam Tunstall’s, which reported to North West Equity Fund. PNM provide telecommunication managed services and are based in Altrincham. The transaction completed, with NWEF and HSBC providing equity and debt finance, in May 2003. This was a nice circular transaction, as Stephen had introduced the company to NWEF in the first place!

February 2003
LAB was retained by HSBC Bank in Chester to provide an independent banking review into a North of England based security company. LAB was assisted by Haslam Tunstall in both their Warrington and Knutsford offices, in providing accounting assistance and financial forecasting. The exercise was led by Andrew Lawson.

January 2003
LAB was retained by Mr & Mrs Mike Shaw to dispose of their investment in JMS Systems Limited upon Mike’s pending retirement. After nine months of selective marketing and protracted negotiations, the business was sold for an undisclosed sum to Specialised Canvas Limited based in South Yorkshire.

Mike Shaw said “I am delighted with the outcome – LAB managed to achieve a price for the business which was almost 30% above our expectations.” The project was led by Andrew Lawson.