News | Finance

Tuesday 24th April 2007

SJ Berwin has further enhanced its growing reputation acting for banks on leveraged finance transactions after securing the mandate to act for lead arranger The Royal Bank of Scotland and syndicate banks Bank of Scotland and Allied Irish Bank on a £230m debt facility for Care UK. This included the finance to enable Care UK to complete the £78m acquisition of Mercury Health Holdings Limited, a division of Tribal Group plc. Care UK, a leading independent provider of health and social care solutions which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, were rumoured to have edged out private equity group Cognetas and healthcare service group Inhealth to acquire Mercury.
 
The SJ Berwin team was led by new Finance Partner Stuart Brinkworth (assisted by Associate Bryan McCarthy), who secured the instruction only days after joining the firm from McGrigors. The team also included Corporate Partner Perry Yam.
 
Commenting on the transaction, Stuart Brinkworth said:
 
"I have been working closely with the RBS Healthcare team for several years now and it was extremely pleasing to receive an instruction on a transaction of this size so soon after arriving here, particularly as Care UK is one of its biggest customers. The strength of the SJ Berwin brand played a big part in winning this deal and demonstrated exactly why I chose to come here."
 
Care UK were advised by Hammonds (Trevor Ingle and Jonathan Edwards).

For further information please contact:

Stuart Brinkworth, Partner, on +44 (0)20 7111 2050 or by emailing stuart.brinkworth@sjberwin.com or
Amanda Nassar, Business Development Manager, on +44 (0)20 7111 2658 or by emailing amanda.nassar@sjberwin.com

SJ Berwin LLP is a full-service international legal practice with more than 1000 lawyers across its offices in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.

SJ Berwin was created and thrives as a leading-edge legal services business, focusing on the European and international market place. Our clients are sophisticated buyers of legal services, principally entrepreneurial companies and financial institutions, whom we advise on a comprehensive range of services including Corporate Finance, Commercial, Real Estate, Finance, Reconstruction and Insolvency, Financial Services, Litigation, Employment & Pensions, EU & Competition & Tax.

Our approach has resulted in the firm winning a number of recent awards including Best Law Firm (Fund Formation) (Private EquityOnline and Private Equity International) 2006; Competition Team of the Year - Legal Business Awards 2006;  No 1 in Legal Week’s Law Firm Satisfaction Survey 2005; UK Firm of the Year - Legal Week Awards 2005; Law Firm of the Year 2005 at the EVCA/Real Deals Private Equity Awards for the second consecutive year; Real Estate Team of the Year - Legal Business Awards 2005; Real Estate Team of the Year - The Lawyer Awards 2005; Stephen Kon awarded Best Achievement in Copyright Practice at the World Leaders European IP Awards 2005; Jonathan Blake named Global Private Funds Lawyer of the Year by The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers; Jonathan Blake was admitted to The BVCA Hall of Fame, the only adviser to have done so.

The core Finance Department grew by 45% in 2006, an increase of 85% over the past three years. The department comprises 11 partners and over 40 fee earners. Key bank clients include Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank plc, Landsbanki Islands h.f., Lehman Brothers, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, NM Rothschild & Sons, Standard Chartered Bank , and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. The department works closely with other departments within the firm, in particular the Financial Services Group on regulatory and derivatives work, the property finance group in the Real Estate Division and the media finance group. It advises a wide range of banks and other financial institutions, corporates and revenue capitalists. The growth of the finance practice in London is reflected in recent significant expansion in our offices in Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Milan, whose practices include both domestic and crossborder financings.

On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin became SJ Berwin LLP, a limited liability partnership www.sjberwin.com