04 October 2004 LAWFUEL – Best law news, legal, attornehy, law firm news, comercial law newsHerbert Smith advises Roger De Haan on the sale of Saga Limited to
management buy-out team supported by Charterhouse
A large team at Herbert Smith achieved a successful conclusion to the
long-running auction for the sale of Saga Limited (“Saga”), the provider of travel, financial and media products and services tailored exclusively to people aged 50 and over in the UK, for £1.35 billion.
Herbert Smith acted for Roger De Haan, the majority shareholder of Saga and the son of the late Sidney De Haan who founded the business in 1951.
The purchaser was Platinum 400 Limited, the acquisition vehicle of the
management team and supported by Charterhouse. The sale is conditional on the Purchaser obtaining regulatory approvals relating to the Saga group’s financial services businesses.
The auction process, which began after Mr. De Haan made the decision to retire as Chairman after 38 years working at Saga, was run on a dual track with a proposed initial public offering and listing of the shares of Saga on the London Stock Exchange. A decision was made a few days prior to signing to concentrate on reaching a deal with a private bidder and management.
Ben Ward commented:
“The sale was a brilliant result for Roger De Haan and the management team
after the many months of work involved. We had separate dedicated teams
working with each bidder (and until very recently on the proposed IPO) and
ran the process so that the sale agreement could be signed very shortly
after the decision to accept the offer from the purchaser.”
The Herbert Smith team (which also acted for Saga in relation to the
proposed IPO) was led by Ben Ward, Louise Freestone and Stephen Barnard with
Colin Campbell, Gavin Williams, Adam Wells, Camilla Sacrini, Will Harvey,
Robert Moore and Peter Myners (corporate) and Howard Murray with Robert
Young and Will Arrenberg (tax).
UBS acted as financial adviser to Mr. De Haan and his family trusts in
relation to the sale and for Saga in relation to the proposed IPO.
Dickson Minto acted for the Charterhouse, Withers (John Riches) acted for Mr. De Haan’s family trusts and Travers Smith Braithwaite (Charles Barker) acted for the management team.
