Addleshaw Goddard has announced a further two UK public takeover transactions in the last 24 hours. The firm advised UK Main Market listed REIT, A&J Mucklow Group plc, the Midlands' largest quoted investment property company, on its proposed £415m acquisition by LondonMetric. This follows on from advising on Nuvei's c.£700m acquisition of AG's AIM listed client, SafeCharge International Group Limited.

AG advised on 20% of all UK public takeover bids in 2018 and in 2019 so far in addition to these two deals has advised on offers for KCOM, Footasylum and Faroe Petroleum, reinforcing its position as a leading adviser on UK public M&A. The AG team has more ex-Takeover Panel secondees than any other advisory firm, including corporate partner Simon Wood (who returned from a two year stint as Secretary at the end of 2017), senior partner Charles Penney and corporate partner Giles Distin.

Simon Wood, who led on the A&J Mucklow deal, said: "Despite the prevailing UK political climate, there is clear appetite for strategic deal-doing. We are extremely proud to be at the forefront of advising on  public M&A, and to deliver cutting-edge advice to our clients." 

Giles Distin, who led on the SafeCharge acquisition, said: "Amidst global uncertainty, UK public M&A remains strong. Many UK listed companies, with high quality businesses represent great value to acquirers, both domestically and abroad. In this context, we are delighted to reaffirm AG's status as a leading law firm advising on takeover offers for UK plc." 

In addition to the deals announced today, Addleshaw Goddard has recently advised: 

• KCOM on its £504m recommended acquisition by Humber Bidco (owned by Universities Superannuation Scheme) (led by AG's Richard Lee)
• JD Sports on its £90m recommended takeover offer for Footasylum (led by Roger Hart)
• on DNO's £642m hostile bid for Faroe Petroleum (led by Simon Wood)
• on the £186m recommended takeover offer for Sinclair Pharma by Huadong Medicine (led by Giles Distin)
• GVC on its up to £4bn recommended takeover offer for Ladbrokes Coral (led by Nick Pearey)
• DBAY Advisors on a £99m recommended takeover offer for Harvey Nash (led by Simon Wood)

More details on our 2018 M&A activity can be found here