what's in the news

Courtesy of Thames Valley Business Magazine February 2012

What could 2012 offer you and your business? For many Thames Valley-based businesses, 2012 is a year for optimism, opportunity, growth and investment, writes Patrick Long, Banking & Finance Partner, Pitmans LLP.
 
Respondents to Pitmans “Funding your Business” Survey , conducted in December 2011, clearly felt the UK economy’s recovery would remain in recession for the majority of 2012, but it is against this backdrop that over 60% of Thames Valley based respondents said that they anticipate a year of steady growth in 2012. This is a marked contrast to respondents from businesses which lie outside of the Thames Valley region, who predominantly forecast trade at similar levels as 2011.

The Thames Valley has long been labelled the economic powerhouse of the UK, thanks largely to its diversity, strong skills based and excellent infrastructure – attracting top talent and global businesses from software, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, utility and construction sectors.

Click here to view the summary of Pitmans “Funding your Business” Survey.

For further information on the survey, please contact Pitmans Banking & Finance team.

Patrick Long
Partner
T: +44 (0) 118 957 0488
E: plong@pitmans.com

This article was published by Asset Finance International

The new Bribery Act (the “Act”), is a wholesale reform of the old bribery laws which were a complicated and confusing combination of statutory and common law offences from more than 100 years of legal development in this area.

The need for reform was widely acknowledged, however, the final result may have alarming consequences for corporate entities, including asset lenders and equipment leasing companies operating in and outside the UK, as many law abiding businesses could inadvertently break the new rules if they are not properly prepared. Therefore, it is important for organisations to consider now what the Act means for them and what actions they need to take as a result.

To read more, please click here.

The survey is now closed.

The results will be published in January 2012.

For your copy, please email poppy@pitmans.com

Award winning law firm Pitmans has acted on behalf of Blinkbox Entertainment Ltd (a video-on-demand pioneer) and its management team, headed by Michael Comish and Adrian Letts, in the sale of an 80 per cent majority stake to supermarket group Tesco, for an undisclosed consideration.  Andrew Peddie, Corporate Partner at Pitmans led the team advising Blinkbox, assisted by Alan Hunt, Mark Metcalfe and Karen Griffiths.  Natasha Kaye and Suzy Giele of Olswang LLP provided tax advice.  The selling shareholders were Nordic Venture Partners and Eden Ventures, advised by Ashfords LLP.

The transaction represents a new stage of development for Blinkbox, and positions Tesco for the next stage in the internet-driven revolution in home entertainment, creating a formidable competitor for existing services such as Amazon’s LoveFilm.

Blinkbox CEO Michael Comish, said, “We are pleased that our partnership with Tesco allows us to bring the best in entertainment from our library of over 9,000 titles to even more people across the UK. It’s a hugely exciting time, looking at how accessible entertainment is becoming for consumers. This partnership represents another step forward, bringing the leading movie streaming service together with the UK’s biggest retailer.”

“We have worked with Andrew Peddie since the founding of the company in 2006 and rate his help and advice, and that of the wider team at Pitmans, very highly indeed.  On this project they have worked tirelessly to achieve a great end result in a short timescale and with complex documentation and we could not be more positive about their contribution to the process”. 

Andrew Peddie added: “It has been great to work with the Blinkbox team through the various stages of development of the business and now to take the company on to a new platform for further growth with Tesco.  Coordinating this project with the different advisers involved significant complexity and a final completion process spread over three days which required bringing all our project management skills to bear.  I am delighted we were able to bring it to a conclusion in the tight timescales required. ”

Blinkbox, set up by former Channel 4 and Vocafone executives in 1996 and launched two years later, is the UK’s leading movie streaming service, offering thousands of titles streamed on the internet to 2m users each month. Their catalogue of more than 9,000 titles is available to rent or buy, alongside a host of free-to-view movies, TV shows and trailers, on PC, Mac, PS3 console, tablet devices and internet-enabled connected TVs.

Blinkbox  has content licensing deals with broadcasters and producers such as BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, ALL3Media and FremantleMedia for shows including Peep Show, Shameless, How to Look Good Naked, Doctor Who, Baywatch, Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.  Blinkbox also has deals with major US studios and networks including Warner Bros – two of the most watched shows are Gossip Girl and ER – Paramount, Discovery Networks, Universal and 20th Century Fox.
 
Andrew Peddie
apeddie@pitmans.com 
+44 (0) 118 957 0321

Following a year of transaction success Pitmans were thrilled to win 2 prestigious awards at the Thames Valley & Solent Deal Awards ceremony on Thursday 7 April 2011.

Adam Dowdney, a partner in Pitmans’ corporate team, scooped the ‘Lawyer of the Year’ award, whilst Pitmans was also recognised for its advisory work on the £20 million disposal and management buy-in of seismological equipment company Guralp Systems to Primary Capital, which was voted ‘Deal of the Year (under £25m).

Commenting on the award wins, Adam Dowdney said: “Personally, I am absolutely thrilled to have won the ‘Lawyer of the Year’ award.  As delighted as I am, I see it very much as a team award for everyone in the corporate department at Pitmans and a great reflection on all the hard work and commitment put in over the last 12 months, during which time we’ve achieved some sizeable transactions in a pretty tough economic climate.”

Adam also commented,  “Guralp Systems is a fantastic business and we were delighted to be involved in such a complex deal, which required some innovative approaches to a number of issues that arose during the process.  It was also a really good example of a deal being done by local advisers within the Thames Valley deal community, which was effected through the expertise, clear communication and teamwork of all of the parties involved.”

Adam Dowdney - Lawyer of the Year

Adam Dowdney - Lawyer of the Year

Pitmans, the leading Thames Valley law firm with offices in London and Reading, has acted on behalf of Cohort plc, the independent technology group, and its wholly owned subsidiary MASS Consultants Limited (“MASS”) in the acquisition by MASS of the entire share capital of Abacus EW Consultancy Limited for an initial cash consideration of £1.0m payable on completion and a further performance-related cash consideration of up to £1.8m over three years. The transaction was led by Pitmans Corporate Partner Andrew Peddie assisted by Rishi Sharma, Corporate Solicitor.

Commenting on the acquisition, Andrew Thomis, Chief Executive of Cohort plc said:
“This small but important transaction adds depth, breadth and new customers to an already successful offering from our MASS business in the export EW market. This very much reinforces our niche capability in this field and I welcome Paul Burrows and his team into Cohort.”

Andrew Peddie, Pitmans Corporate Partner added:
“It was very satisfying to conclude this acquisition for Cohort plc, a long-standing client. The transaction involved complex elements (including the performance-related cash consideration), and we were pleased to provide the depth of expertise in the tight timetable that our client required”.