LONDON – LAWFUEL – Legal News, Legal Jobs – DLA Piper has advised a newly formed company, CGL Restaurants Holdings Limited(“CGL”) and Bank of Scotland Corporate on the £50 million MBO of Conran Restaurants from Conran Holdings. DLA Piper acted for Bank of Scotland’s Integrated Finance unit.
CGL (31% owned by Des Gunewardena, David Loewi, their management team and backed by Bank of Scotland Corporate who have taken an 18% stake in the business) acquired Conran Restaurants from Conran Holdings. The remaining 51% of CGL is owned by Conran Holdings.
Corporate partner Mel Sims commented: “We have acted for Bank of Scotland Corporate on a number of high profile transactions recently – Vue Cinemas, McCarthy & Stone, House of Fraser – Conran Restaurants continues this successful trend and we look forward to seeing its portfolio continue to grow.”
The Conran Restaurants deal follows the £350 million acquisition of Vue Entertainment in June 2006, the UK’s leading cinema developer and operator, which was the single largest MBO completed by Bank of Scotland to date. DLA Piper has led a number of other significant MBOs for Bank of Scotland’s Integrated Finance unit including TM Group and Red Funnel.
Mark Hammond, Head of Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance commented: “The MBO of Conran Restaurants is another high profile transaction for Integrated Finance and we are extremely pleased to be investing in the business.”
The DLA Piper team was led by corporate partner Mel Sims (partner) with assistance from Julian Mathews (associate) and Chris Cawthorne (assistant). Banking was led by David Miles (partner), Alex Griffith (associate) and Katy Byatt (assistant); Real estate was undertaken by Jonathan Humble (associate); David Reuben (partner) and Kassim Meghjee (associate) advised on tax and Abigail Jenkins (solicitor) advised on employment.