Shepherd and Wedderburn’s corporate finance team advised on deals worth £7.1bn in 2020 Finance and Banking

Shepherd and Wedderburn’s corporate finance team advised on deals worth a total of £7.1bn in 2020.

The team advised on 75 corporate finance transactions globally (excluding transactions for the banking sector), an increase of 18% from its aggregate value of £6bn in 2019.

The firm’s corporate finance lawyers have assisted clients in a number of high-profile clean energy and technology-focused transactions, underscoring their reputation in these innovative and fast-growing sectors.

Transactions in the clean energy sector included:

• acting for Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Limited, the project company undertaking the expansion of Galloper’s operational offshore wind farm to 353 megawatts, as part of the formation of a consortium involving RWE, a consortium led by Macquarie, Siemens, Sumitomo and ESB, and obtaining the necessary seabed rights from The Crown Estate; and




• acting for BayWa re UK Limited in its sale of the 24 megawatt Inverclyde wind farm to Gresham House Renewable Energy LP.

The firm has also advised leading transactions in the technology and fintech sectors, such as:

• acting for Epic Games, a leading developer and publisher of video games and video game engines, in connection with its acquisitions of SuperAwesome, a pioneer in the “kidtech” market, and Cubic Motion, a provider of facial animation technology;




• sole counsel to Bigblu Broadband plc, a company listed on AIM, in connection with the sale of its European satellite broadband business to Eutelsat SA, a company listed on Euronext, which required the coordination of the execution in 11 jurisdictions;




• representing IndigoVision Group plc, the AIM-listed video surveillance company taken over by Motorola Solutions; and




• acting for secure payment provider PCI Pal plc in connection with its share offering.

Corporate operations activity during the year covered a wide range of sectors, including food and beverage, funds and capital markets, energy, life sciences and health care, real estate and financial services. The team also continued to support innovative start-ups and spin-outs in securing seed funding or follow-on funding.

Other notable transactions completed during the year include:

• representing Cairn Energy plc in connection with the sale of its entire 40% interest in the Rufisque Offshore, Sangomar Offshore and Sangomar Deep Offshore (RSSD) Contract Area (including the Sangomar Development) offshore Senegal;




• representing Kyowa Kirin, the Japanese pharmaceutical group, in the Scottish/Luxembourgish cross-border merger between Kyowa Kirin International plc and Strakan International SA;




• acting for Collagen Solutions plc, the Glasgow-based life sciences company, in its takeover by US group Rosen’s Diversified, Inc; and




• acting for the owners in the sale of the company vehicles who held the Auch & Invermearan estates, constituting the largest sale of a landed estate in Scotland last year.

Commenting on the 2020 corporate transactions, George Frier, Head of Corporate Finance at Shepherd and Wedderburn, said: “It has undoubtedly been a difficult year for many businesses, but the strength and scale of business of transactions we have seen despite these challenges speaks to the resilience of our clients and the wider business community.

“We also entered 2021 with a very strong performance, with a string of large deals under our belt in the first quarter and clear signs that momentum is building as we emerge from lockdown.”

Download Shepherd and Wedderburn’s 2020 corporate offers review here.

Originally published on April 15, 2021

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