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This article was first published in Acquisition International

Patrick Long, Head of Banking & Finance at Pitmans LLP, has successfully sourced a new £5 million package for Lab21, the global specialist in personalised medicine and clinical diagnostics, from Clydesdale Bank.

Patrick Long acted for Lab21 Limited and other group companies and led the Pitmans team which consisted of Patrick Long, Mark Metcalfe, Philip Weaver and Andrew Souter.

“Pitmans LLP have a long standing connection with Lab21 and have previously provided support for corporate acquisitions by the Group. This is the first time we have advised in connection with the Group’s banking & finance requirements.

The purpose of the facilities made available by Clydesdale Bank Plc was to refinance some existing investor debt and provide growth finance to this international Group as a whole. This was very much a ‘leveraged’ style transaction.

We were involved at an early stage advising on structuring the deal. We had to deal with a variety of investor and other lender interests to the Group in order to facilitate an orderly completion of the new bank debt financing.

Detailed and involved negotiations between relevant parties were required both by Lab21 and ourselves with the parties to the intercreditor agreement and also with other investor parties dealing with the terms of their consents to the transaction. Additionally thanks to the common sense position the Bank took we were able to substantially align the negotiated terms of the Bank’s term loan and security documents with those of the Bank’s invoice finance arm.

Managing the numerous party interests proved time consuming and interesting,. We were ably supported by our commercial clients, Graham Mullis and Susan Lowther and I believe our team work helped to significantly smooth the path and achieve workable solutions for all parties to this transaction. It was also a pleasure to work alongside Sandra Hope and the Clydesdale Bank team including Julia Bracewell of Morton Fraser who acted for the Bank.

We are absolutely delighted that Graham and Susan secured new finance for Lab 21 a very progressive and innovative company and we wish them continued success with their plans for on-going growth and development. Given the difficult conditions of markets generally and business as a whole it is great to be part of a truly good news story.”

Patrick Long
Partner, Banking & Finance
T: 0118 957 0488
E: plong@pitmans.com