Ranked as a Band 1 corporate practitioner by Chambers UK 2025
PartnerDouglas Crawford
Ranked Individual for Corporate M&A by Chambers UK 2025
PartnerWilliam McIntosh
Ranked in Chambers UK 2025 and Legal 500 UK 2025 Hall of Fame for continued excellence
Head of Corporate and Commercial & PartnerNeil Burgess
We act for private equity and venture capital houses, sovereign funds, family offices, management teams, and for buyers, sellers, and owners of businesses who may have involvement with private equity investors in the course of M&A, development capital, and capital release activity. We also advise private equity managers on the fundraising of associated deal finance and on the structuring, establishment, marketing, and ongoing day to day operation of private equity funds.
We provide equity funders with market leading commercial advice and assistance in relation to the latest deal funding mechanics and matters of a strategic nature. We are experts at drafting and negotiating equity funding and related M&A documentation. We drive deals to completion and our understanding and expertise in connection with typical financing arrangements, and fund and investor requirements enables us to ensure that deals are “fund friendly” from the outset.
We have acted for numerous funds and investors on transactions involving crowdfunding, angel investment, venture capital and Series A funding. We also support our clients through significant later stage investments from business growth and private equity funds, as well as in relation to admissions and placements through the London Stock Exchange markets.
Our deep knowledge of the private equity and venture capital industry and the associated structures involved allows us to provide first rate legal and commercial input to management teams and to buyers, sellers, and owners of businesses who encounter private equity whether through direct investment, capital release, deferred, roll over, or earn out consideration provisions, options or employment.
We are adept at transacting cross border M&A deals and utilise our network of best of breed overseas legal firms to assist us alongside our membership of the Terralex legal network. As part of Scotland's largest commercial law firm, our private equity and venture capital team lead commercial diligence services across the required legal disciplines to provide focused and relevant legal diligence products.
We also offer our clients quality personal and corporate tax and incentives structuring services relating to private equity and venture capital activity. This can comprise deal structuring and fund tax advice for equity providers, and personal advice for buyers, sellers, owners, and managers on the tax and incentives implications of investment and deal structures.
Key highlights
- Acting for Accel-KKR, a leading US PE fund focused on tech buyouts, including: $1.16bn exit of the Episerver group to Insight Venture Partners, following our role in a programme of acquisitions, as part of the buy and build strategy; merger of Kimble Applications and Mavenlink Inc; build up of ESG-Utiligroup, a SaaS provider to the utilities industry; and take-private transaction and multiple acquisitions in Europe and the Nordics.
- Acting for Kersia (backed by PE fund Ardian) in its buy-and-build to become Europe's second largest food safety company.
- Advising international buyer Frostkrone Food Group, backed by German private equity funds managed by EMERAM Capital Partners and a leading manufacturer of deep-frozen snacks in Europe and the USA, on the strategic acquisitions of Innovate Foods and Abergavenny Fine Foods.
- Advising Scottish Equity Partners on various private equity investments, both in the UK and overseas.
- Acting for the vendors and the management team in the disposal (MBO) of John Lawrie Group to Rubicon Partners and Grovepoint.
- Acting for Energy Ventures and Romar Group in the merger of Romar Group with Abrado Inc.