Freeths Sheffield Corporate team scoop industry prize after record year

Freeths Corporate team in Sheffield have scooped a major industry prize – International/National Deal of the Year Award, from Business Insider magazine – in what has been a record breaking year for deals.

This deal category recognises the excellent work done by South Yorkshire advisers for companies that are outside of the area. Linetime is a Leeds-headquartered legal software supplier, while PracticeEvolve provides legal practice management software to mid-tier law firms globally. The buyer has a UK office in Woking and operations in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.  PracticeEvolve was advised by Peter Crawford and team from Freeths’ Sheffield office.

This deal was completed early in 2020, alongside the disposal of Fretwell Downing Hospitality to Civica UK, and further transactions in the care and construction sectors.

Over the summer, the team advised the shareholders of leading diagnostic instrument developer and manufacturer, IT-IS International, on their exit to the Novacyt Group, who hold a supply contract with the UK government for the provision of COVID-19 testing kits.

The team then advised on a raft of deals through the autumn, which culminated in the completion of five transactions in 10 days during December, including Foresight’s investment into MR Machine Knives, and Unihomes acquisition of Split the Bills.

Practice head, Peter Crawford said, “2020 has been a year like no other. Despite the huge challenges faced by all areas of the economy, it has been enormously comforting to witness the way in which businesses have sought to quickly adapt, evolve and continue to seek out opportunities. 

It has been a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with all our clients throughout the last year, and I would particularly like to place upon record my thanks to everyone in the team for all of their hard work. Given the resilience shown in 2020, and the positive news around the present vaccination effort, we look forward to seeing many more deals across the line in 2021.”

The team were also nominated for Corporate Law Firm of the Year, Deal of the Year (£10m+), Mid-Market Deal of the Year (£2.5m – £10m) and Deal of the Year (up to £2.5m). Peter Crawford was also shortlisted for Dealmaker of the Year.