Performance already exceeds targeted YoY revenue by 52%
It has been a busy start to 2023 for the corporate and commercial team at Swinburne Maddison LLP, (Swinburne Maddison) following a record year for deal activity.
At month ten, the team is already significantly above targeted revenue for the current financial year with a strong number of existing engagements for Q1 and a pipeline of further opportunities.
In terms of volume and value of deals completed, 2022 was the team’s strongest year to date. Typically, the work taken on has a strong regional focus, but over the course of the last year Swinburne Maddison has seen more activity nationally and has advised on a number of transatlantic transactions.
Chief among them is an instruction from one of the US’s largest providers of security services, Argenbright Holdings LLC (Argenbright).
Following its role advising the shareholders of Amberstone Security Group Limited, (Amberstone), in connection with the platform investment made by Argenbright in Summer 2022, Swinburne Maddison went on to advise Argenbright on its second transaction in the UK, which would enhance its UK presence and form the cornerstone of its European launch.
The acquisition of Team Valley-based The Protector Group (Protector), which completed at the end of 2022 will complement Amberstone’s offering by providing security monitoring services and IoT-enabled integrated security solutions into the construction and critical national infrastructure sectors. The Protector Group joins Amberstone Security under the Argenbright umbrella retaining its own identity.
As a provider of complex and mission-critical security solutions to major sites throughout the UK, Protector is a perfect fit for Argenbright’s overall expansion strategy given Protector’s strong regional presence and immense national potential.
Commenting on the transaction, Jason Trigg, managing director of Amberstone, said: “There are a lot of parallels between the two businesses in that we are both entrepreneurial market disruptors who have always looked to change the narrative of the security industry and make the services on offer even more bespoke and customer-centric.
“It made perfect sense to bring The Protector Group under the Argenbright umbrella and join Amberstone in delivering innovative, IoT-enabled integrated security solutions. I look forward to working with the leadership team at The Protector Group in the years ahead.”
Commenting on these two deals, corporate and commercial partner, Martyn Tennant, said:
“We were delighted to work with the Argentbright Group in connection with this transaction. Thanks to the strength and depth of our team and our experience in the sector (having previously advised on the disposal of Hadrian Technology Limited to Marlowe plc) as well as on numerous transatlantic M&A transactions in recent years, we were well placed to advise the Amberstone shareholders regarding the strategic investment by Argenbright.
“Our performance during that first transaction led to a referral by the Amberstone shareholders, which resulted in working with Argenbright in relation to the Protector deal.”
The satisfactory completion of both transactions serves to demonstrate the breadth of partner-level expertise that the Swinburne Maddison team can offer clients from its Durham head office. Martyn and his two fellow partners in the corporate and commercial team – Alex Wilby and Craig Malarkey – worked across both matters, with nine other partners and lawyers from its corporate, commercial, employment, pensions and commercial property teams providing transactional support where required.
Last year also saw Swinburne Maddison advise on the investment made by Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused private equity firm, into Singletrack, a company that has been supported by the law firm through its full life cycle – from start up to this milestone event.
Founded in 2009, Singletrack is an engagement, research management and analytics platform, purpose-built by industry professionals for capital markets, helping clients on both the sell and buy sides maximise revenue, efficiency and profitability. Based in London and with satellite offices in Newcastle and New York this investment enables Singletrack to accelerate expansion plans into global markets and execute on strategic M&A.
