Howes Percival’s corporate, commercial, and banking (CCB) team completed over 150 deals with a combined value of £700 million in 2022.
The growing team advises clients on significant and transformational acquisitions and disposals and the full range of contractual matters. It also provides a dedicated banking and finance service to banks, financial institutions, funds, and other lenders.
The number of completed transactions in 2022 was a further increase on the firm’s record deal volumes in 2021, with levels of M&A, financing and restructuring activity remaining high.
The growth was also driven by the ongoing investment in the Howes Percival CCB team, over the last three years. The team is now 60% larger than in 2019, as a result of a series of quality lateral hires including Chris White, Chloe Bristow and Deb Hay Davison (all formerly at Dentons), James Stephen (BDB Pitmans) Will Taylor (EMW) and Bradley Johnson (Machins) all joining in 2022. Tom Maksymiw also qualified into the team during the year.
Andy Harris, partner, and head of Howes Percival’s CCB team, said: “2022 was a record-breaking year again for Howes Percival’s CCB team and I’m incredibly proud of what we have delivered, both in terms of the volume of deals and the quality of the service the team has provided to clients. We hope we are increasingly seen as one of the go-to firms for corporate transactions in our key regions and we are getting more and more referrals across a wide range of sectors, as word spreads.
“We have seen a really good flow of instructions from some of our key sectors such as Automotive (particularly motor dealer M&A), Development, Food and Beverage, Healthcare, Leisure & Tourism and Technology & Innovation with significant transactions in each of these areas. We think these clients come to us not only because we are capable corporate, commercial and banking professionals, but also because of our relationship-driven approach, as well as our deep sector knowledge.
“In addition to the lateral hires we are proud to have attracted, we continue to place great emphasis on recognising and promoting home-grown talent within the team, and offering a complete career path, from developing great trainees through to creating new partners. We’ve also expanded the firm’s services to clients. Paula Dumbill, who joined us from Browne Jacobson, established and has grown our dedicated Commercial team, while we also now have a dedicated Company Secretarial and Governance team headed by Chloe Bristow.”
Andy Harris continued: “Of course, the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and the potential for recession in the UK are still major concerns this year, and we will all be keeping a close eye on things. As a general observation, transactions are taking longer to deliver, but the situation does vary by sector and we are still seeing plenty of activity and new opportunities.”
