Midlands firm sees bumper month of listed deals

Public company lawyers at law firm Shakespeare Martineau have advised on five deals for listed company clients in quick succession, following a bumper month in fundraising deals and acquisitions, including raising more than £4 million.

In under three weeks, corporate partner Keith Spedding, along with legal director Jennie Davis, supported the series of rapid-fire deals for businesses across property, energy, pharmaceuticals, tech and manufacturing.

Deals included the acquisition of Gateway Electronic Components Ltd by long-standing Shakespeare Martineau client Solid State plc. The Worcester-based technology manufacturer purchased the ferrite and magnetic component experts in a cash deal worth £1.4 million.

Within a matter of days, the firm also supported cloud-based enterprise data analytics platform Rosslyn Data Technologies to raise funds of more than £3 million via a placing, subscription, issue of loan notes and a retail offer.

Similarly, Nuformix plc, a pharmaceutical development company targeting unmet medical needs in fibrosis and oncology via drug repurposing, announced a fundraising a through a placing raising £300,000.

The team also advised UK-based residential developer, development manager and property manager One Heritage Group PLC (now called Zentra Group PLC) in a restructure including the acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in One Victoria – worth £3million, sale of assets worth more than £5m and refinancing of the existing shareholder loan facility.

A third acquisition came from Oscillate plc, which agreed to acquire Minnesota-based Quantum Hydrogen with the help of the firm, for a price of £1,400,000 and they also raised £500,000 via a placing.

Keith Spedding (pictured), partner in Shakespeare Martineau’s Birmingham office, who led all five deals, said: “We’re seeing a large amount of fundraising and market consolidation right now with the corporate team busy across all our offices. There is money to be had for investment and innovation for the right companies. It’s great to work across such a broad range of sectors, deal sizes and complexities and for such great clients.”