Paula Park and Gareth McIntegart
The Liverpool office of law firm DWF has announced two key promotions to support the continuing growth of its corporate team.
Paula Park has been made head of corporate for the firm as a whole with overall responsibility for the 35-strong corporate and commercial team across the firm’s Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Leeds offices, while Gareth McIntegart takes over from Paula as head of the corporate team in Liverpool.
Ms Park has been with the firm since 1987 and specialises in mergers and acquisitions of companies in the food industry. Mr McIntegart, who joined in 1995, advises on a broad range of transactions including MBOs, private equity and joint ventures.
The promotions come as the Liverpool corporate team celebrates another successful year for deals. In the year to the end of April 2007, it advised on more than 50 transactions worth just under £1 billion.
The food sector proved to be one of the most buoyant areas for deals activity. DWF advised Iceland Foods Group on its £370 million refinancing and acted for Burton’s Foods on the £10 million sale of its confectionery division to Tangerine and its institutional buy-out by Duke Street Capital.
It also advised on the equity investment in Kwik Save Group, its refinancing and acquisition of further stores, and advised Edward Billington & Son on the asset sale of its chocolate-making division Classic Couverture to ADM.
One of the most interesting deals was the trade buy-out of safety footwear manufacturer LH Safety by Delta Plus Group of France, believed to be one of the first genuine trade buy-outs (TBOs) in the UK.
Other deals handled by the Liverpool team included the £30 million management buy-out of the share capital of Esterform Packaging and the joint venture between Neptune Developments and Countryside Properties for the redevelopment of the Mann Island site.
Deals varied in size with clients ranging from major household names to small independents and family-run SME businesses.
Andrew Leaitherland, managing partner of DWF, said: “Our track record over the past year demonstrates the credibility of the Liverpool team in the corporate deals arena. Paula and
Gareth have played a key role in helping us achieve this.
"These promotions will support the continuing growth of the corporate team in Liverpool and in the region as a whole.�