News | Private Equity

Monday 24th September 2001

SJ Berwin acted for Graphite Capital Management in the £16.5 million acquisition of Summit Medical Limited by way of a management buy-out/buy-in by Summit Medical (Holdings) Limited.

Summit Medical is a leading supplier of orthopaedic surgery devices, wound drainage systems and autologous blood transfusion products.

Senior debt funding for the deal was provided by Bank of Scotland, represented by DLA.

Graphite Capital is a leading player in mid-market private equity in the UK, and has funds under management of more than £500 million.

SJ Berwin acted for Graphite Capital on its own management buy-out earlier this year when F&C Ventures Limited was sold to its management by Hypovereinsbank.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partner Andrew Harris, who was assisted by Andrew Clarke. Charles Russell acted for the principal vendor.

Andrew Harris said: "This is a good example of an established venture investor being able to find a quality management buy out deal in a challenging market place".

• SJ Berwin was founded in 1982 and is a full-service international legal practice with 119 partners and more than 470 lawyers. It has offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With the largest dedicated private equity team in Europe, comprising 140 corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin has recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.