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Media Releases
2006

25 September
2006

Corporate choice

Leading law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn was named Corporate Law Firm of the Year at the Law Awards of Scotland on Thursday 14 September, 2006.

Leading law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn was named Corporate Law Firm of the Year at the Law Awards of Scotland on Thursday 14 September, 2006.

The team, led by Head of Corporate Finance James Will, beat off stiff competition from a strong short list comprising nine corporate law firms to secure the title.

This accolade comes on the back of an outstanding year of high profile deals completed by the 70-strong corporate finance team out of the firm's Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and London offices. Since the beginning of last year the team has acted in 30 IPOs or secondary fundraisings, proving itself the frontrunner in the Scottish IPO marketplace and a significant player in the UK with a fast-growing international IPO practice. The firm has also been particularly active on the M+A and joint venture front with major deals for companies such as Edinburgh Oil and Gas, Scottish and Newcastle, Alliance Trust and ScottishPower. The judges also praised the corporate finance team's international focus citing their involvement in a number of deals emanating from continental Europe and countries such as Australia, Canada, Russia, South Africa and India.

Recent deals include:

  • Acting for ProStrakan Group plc in its £187m main market IPO and Global Offering
  • Acting in the AUD 45m placing by Ballarat Goldfields N.L.
  • Advising on the merger of the Alliance Trust Plc and The Second Alliance Trust plc by way of a scheme arrangement worth £2.5bn
  • Acting for Scottish and Newcastle plc in the creation of a joint venture with Kuehne and Nagel Logistics to undertake distribution for the drinks industry in the UK
  • Advising the sponsor in the main market IPO of international engineering consultancy Scott and Wilson plc, raising £72m
  • Advising main market listed Edinburgh and Gas plc on its £133 m sale to Dyon
  • Advising ScottishPower on its £96m sale of Holford Gas Storage to E.ON UK

Patrick Andrews, chief executive of the firm, said: “Last week was a fantastic week for our corporate finance team – not only did they win Corporate Law Firm of the Year but they were the only team from a Scottish-based UK firm to be recommended by the Legal 500 2006 in the London market for "Flotations: small and mid-cap" – and on top of that, going up a further tier from last year. The team also went up two places in Hemscott's August UK Law Firm league table to 12th place in the UK ranked by market cap of FTSE 250 clients also published last week. Our corporate finance team is really motoring."

“I was also delighted that Wende Wraight, one of our paralegals, won Paralegal of the Year which was an outstanding achievement on her part. The very nature of the awards and the fact that clients play an influential role in selecting winners is extremely telling and highlights the strong capabilities and dedication of our winners.”


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