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SJ Berwin LLP Advises Change Capital on £105 Million Acquisition of Republic

Wednesday 19th October 2005

SJ Berwin advised Change Capital - the private equity house set up by Luc Vandevelde, formerly of Marks & Spencer - on its acquisition of Republic, the fashion chain, for £105 million. The SJ Berwin team was led by corporate partner Graham Nicholson and banking partner Jeremy Cross.

"Change Capital is a great client for us" commented Nicholson. "With their European retailing and consumer goods focus, they fall squarely within our strategic sweet spot".

Republic is the latest in a string of retail deals completed by SJ Berwin recently, including the acquisition of Jimmy Choo for Lion Capital, the sale of Jane Norman for Graphite Capital and the acquisition for Studio Group of Principles and Warehouse.

Addleshaw Goddard in Leeds advised the sellers and management on the transaction. The Addleshaw’s team was led by corporate partner Yunus Seedat.Eversheds in Manchester, led by Nigel Dale, advised Lloyds TSB who provided the acquisition finance.

Notes:

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 450 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With more than 200 corporate finance lawyers, the depth and breadth of expertise of our pan-European Corporate Finance Department is considerable. We offer the complete range of corporate finance services, which extends to all aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A and buy-outs, private equity, equity capital markets, financial services and tax.
• In 2004, we advised on 87 M&A deals with a combined value of over £13 billion, and 52 buy-outs with a combined value of £6 billion The UK corporate practice moved up a tier in the M&A rankings in the Legal 500 2005-2006, "on the back of 12 months of undoubted progress for its M&A team".
• 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, Banking, Reconstruction & Insolvency, Financial Services, Litigation, Employment & Pensions, EU & Competition and Tax.
• Our approach has resulted in the firm winning a number of recent awards including "European Law Firm of the Year" (fund formation) by subscribers to PrivateEquityOnline and Private Equity International, "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2004" at the European Venture Capital journal awards 2004, "Law Firm of the Year" 2004 at the EVCA/Real Deals European Private Equity Awards, " LBO Firm of the Year" 2004 at the Finance and Law Awards in Paris, "Real Estate Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2004, "World's Leading Firm for Private Funds Expertise" in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers 2003/4.
• In April 2005 Head of Private Equity, Jonathan Blake, was named Global Lawyer of the Year in the Private Funds category by The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers 2004/2005. In November 2004, Jonathan Blake, was admitted to the British Venture Capital Association "Hall of Fame" for his services to the private equity industry over the last 20 years.
• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin became SJ Berwin LLP, a limited liability partnership.www.sjberwin.com. SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Munich and Paris

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