Browne Jacobson's banking team has started the New Year with a
major deals push by completing six funding deals in as many weeks
and been appointed to Santander's Corporate Banking Legal
Panel.
Three deals involved specialist healthcare providers and include
advising Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) specialist healthcare team
on funding for Bondcare on the acquisition of five locations
earmarked for care home development across the East and West
Midlands. Bondcare is one of the UK's largest privately held
care-home companies, operating more than 40 care homes. The other
deals also involved advising RBS Healthcare on its provision of
£3.89m of funding for the development of healthcare centres
in Bedford and Solihull.
Browne Jacobson also advised the management team of
Dynamic-Materials Group Limited on a multi-million pound secondary
management buyout from Barclays Ventures, with funding provided
locally by Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.
Dynamic-Materials Group, whose head office is based in Pinxton,
Nottinghamshire, and which has long established manufacturing
facilities in the UK and USA, is a market leader in the world of
advanced materials.
Paul Ray, Head of Banking at Browne Jacobson, believes some
sectors will see good levels in corporate activity in 2010. He
said:
"These latest deals are a sign that the healthcare sector could
be one of the most active areas for corporate activity in 2010, in
particular the banks have a strong appetite to lend to this sector
despite the difficult economic climate.
"The drop off in corporate activity in 2009 was marked and
whilst trading conditions remain tough we are cautiously optimistic
that 2010 could see an improvement in mid-market M&A deals
generally.
"With an improved funding environment and relatively low
valuations a number of acquisitive corporates are once again
dipping their toes into the M&A pool.
"We currently sit on the corporate banking panels at RBS,
Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Yorkshire Bank. Adding Santander to
that list is a real feather in our cap. Santander is becoming
increasingly active across the region and we have already started
acting for them on a number of finance transactions," he added.