One Lancashire law firm has had a record half billion year

Napthens, which has major offices in Blackpool at Whitehills and Preston, in Winckley Square, passed the £600m mark, a significant increase on previous years.

Altogether, its 28-strong corporate team advised on 50 transactions, a new record, having advised on 32 transactions in 2020 and a further 28 in 2019.

Landmark disclosable deals the firm advised on include Bosch Building Technologies’ acquisition of Lancashire fire safety firm Protec Fire and Security Group, JD Sports Fashion’s acquisition of Wheelbase Lakeland and the disposal of e-commerce platform provider EKM to ClearCourse Partnership.

The firm also advised on a £15m investment into hybrid cloud and IT managed services provider Celerity from growth capital investor BGF.

Elsewhere, the team acted on a number of Employee Ownership Trust transactions throughout the year, including Cheshire-based global recruitment firm Zachary Daniels and maintenance company Restek.

Led by partners Keith Melling, Richard Robinson and Robert Dobson, the firm worked with a variety of private equity-backed and owner-managed businesses, overseas corporations, venture capitalists and management

teams.

Keith Melling, partner and head of corporate at Napthens, said: “Mid-way through last year we surpassed 2020s figure and quickly realised 2021 was set to be exceptional. Appetites have been strong on both the buy and sell side, while private equity funds and large corporates have been seeking opportunity amidst the post-pandemic disruption, leading to a healthy volume of deals.

“What has truly set this year apart for our team however, has been the size, nature and complexity of the deals we are now working on.

Richard Robinson, partner at Napthens, said: “Whilst there were many highlights in our portfolio this year, including our advising on our largest ever transaction, the overall size and calibre of deals we are working on has strengthened in the past few years and it feels we are truly hitting our stride.

“We are now looking to build on the benchmark set in 2021 with an exciting pipeline for the year ahead, having already supported on the acquisition of North West cleanroom provider Connect 2 Cleanrooms by

US-based Angstrom, amongst others.”