Four bidders, three days, two bids and just one law firm

19 March 2008

Nabarro has acted on two bids involving four different bidders in the last three days.

On Tuesday, Nabarro acted for new recruitment consultancy client, Premier Recruitment International in its £45 million offer for its competitor, Imprint plc, which was initially not recommended by Imprint but has now received the board’s recommendation. The transaction saw Premier entering the contested bidding for Imprint, following a recommended offer from Hydrogen Group plc and an offer from OPD Group plc. The Nabarro team was led by corporate partners, Andrea Cropley and Graham Stedman with assistance from Eleanor Baxter. Imprint is advised by Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons.

Andrea Cropley commented: “Given the existing bids, the original unrecommended nature of Premier’s offer and the fact that the client was under a put up or shut up ruling from the Takeover Panel, it was a major achievement to get the offer announcement with no time to spare. We are delighted that the Imprint board has today confirmed its support for our the Premier bid.”

On Thursday, the firm acted for Chelford Group plc on its £16 million recommended offer from Solarsoft Business Systems, a company backed by Marlin Equity Partners. Chelford provides specialist solutions to the warehouse management, distribution, asset tracking and ERP markets. The team was led by corporate partner, Glyn Taylor, with assistance from Graham Muir, Leon Miller and Nick Brown. Gibson Dunn and Crutcher represented Solarsoft Business Systems.

Iain Newman, head of corporate at Nabarro commented:

“These deals underline the strength of both our home-grown and lateral talent. Andrea and Graham are a formidable team as recent laterals leading this transaction following on from their work acting for Alphyra Holdings Limited on its £229 million merger with Cardpoint plc and Andrea leading our successful team getting on to the panel for United Biscuits. Glyn has been with the firm for more than 20 years and has had a phenomenal year with this deal following on from the £269 million recommended offer by GE Capital for Sondex plc and the £69 million recommended offer by Finmeccanica SpA for Vega Group plc.”

If you would like any further information or have any queries please contact:

Charlotte Tandy
Lanson Communications
T +44 (0)20 7566 9706
charlottet@lansons.com