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Thursday 1st May 2008

Leading Private Equity Law Firm SJ Berwin LLP has demonstrated its public to private expertise by advising long standing client ECI Partners, one of the longest established private equity investors in the UK, on its recommended offer for Premier Research Group PLC, an AIM Listed company with a top 15 market position in the international contract research industry delivering a wide range of late-stage clinical trial services to a broad base of pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers.

Relationship and corporate partner Perry Yam led the deal for SJ Berwin together with fellow corporate partner Will Holder and finance partner Stuart Brinkworth.  The team was supported by associates, Dipali Shah, Sarah Higgins and Angela Cobbina.

Perry Yam commented “Given the testing market conditions, concluding this transaction with ECI is very satisfying.  Our position as a leading adviser in the Lifesciences and Healthcare sectors ensured we fully understood the nature of PRG’s business.  We hope to have the opportunity to work on other public to private transactions across the firm’s other areas of sector expertise.” 

Richard Chapman who led the deal for ECI said, “We were delighted to have been involved with this take private transaction.  We are grateful to Perry and his team for their excellent guidance and support throughout the process. ECI definitely has an appetite for more deals of this sort which, given the economic climate, for the right target, would seem to make a lot of commercial sense for all involved.”

Will Holder commented: “Given the small number of take privates announced this quarter, it is satisfying to be involved in the Premier Group offer, together with offers for GCap and ArmorGroup which consolidates SJ Berwin’s position as a leading law firm in this transaction type.  Our view, and that of a  number of our clients, is that takeover activity in the public markets is on the increase given the value differential in the private and public markets and SJ Berwin is well placed to take advantage of this activity given its strong private equity client base.”

This is the third public to private transaction that SJ Berwin have acted on in the first quarter of 2008 after having won the mandate to advise Bank of Scotland and Bank of Ireland on the debt finance aspects of Global Radio’s £375m recommended bid for GCap Media plc, owner of London’s Capital Radio.  If successful, the bid will create the UK’s largest commercial radio group with well-known brands such as Capital Radio, Heart FM, Classic FM and Galaxy.  In addition, SJ Berwin advised Baird Capital, the substantial shareholder of ArmorGroup International plc, in relation to the take over announced by G4S plc. ArmorGroup is a leading provider of defensive, protective security services to agencies operating in hazardous environments.

For further information please contact:

Perry Yam, Corporate Partner on 0207 111 2565 or by emailing perry.yam@sjberwin.com

or

Will Holder, Corporate Partner on 0207 111 2189 or by emailing william.holder@sjberwin.com

or

Sara Mahdavian, Business Development Executive on 0207 111 5074 or by emailing sara.mahdavian@sjberwin.com

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Notes to editors

• SJ Berwin is at the core of European private equity. SJ Berwin has one of the largest fund formation teams in Europe with 22 leading funds partners advising institutional equity providers and management teams on private equity and venture capital fund establishments.
• SJ Berwin has a reputation for innovation. Our extensive knowledge and history in the private equity industry means that we lead the European market on fund terms and conditions and are at the cutting edge of fund structuring.
• SJ Berwin are the recognised market leader in fund structuring and are ranked in the top tier in both Chambers and Legal 500. In addition the private equity team has won a number of recent awards including:  
• "European Law Firm of the Year (Fund Formation) 2007 at the Private Equity International Awards,   
• “Fund Formation Team of the Year” 2006 at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Private Equity Advisory Services,
• “European Law Firm of the Year" 2004 -  2006 at the EVCA/Real Deals European Private Equity Awards,
• ”European Law Firm of the Year" (fund formation) 2001 - 2007 by subscribers to PrivateEquityOnline and Private Equity International,
• "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year" 2004 -  2007 at the European Venture Capital journal awards 2004, and
• "LBO Firm of the Year" 2004 at the Finance and Law Awards in Paris.
• Founded in 1982, SJ Berwin is a leading corporate and commercial law firm with over 170 partners more than 700 lawyers working across its offices in London, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.
• 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, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.