Jonathan Hambleton

Cases

• Acting on the sale of Heritage Automotive Limited, a 12 site franchised car dealership representing Audi, Peugeot, Skoda and Volkswagen and operating across the South West.
• Acting for County Saab on the acquisition of various Saab dealerships
• Acting for the shareholders of Motor Parts Direct, a circa 185 site motor parts sale business, on the restructuring and sale of the business to Motus.
• Acting for access platform provider, AFI Holdings, on various acquisitions, including AJ Rentals Limited, and in relation to debt and equity funding from Santander and Rutland Private Equity.

Jonathan has more than 25 years experience of selling businesses, buying businesses and advising bank and equity providers on investing in businesses. This very broad experience has given Jonathan a detailed insight into the aims and aspirations of sellers, buyers and investors and has proved invaluable in getting transactions completed quickly and efficiently.

The sale of CTC for £140+ million to L3 Technologies Inc involved a number of challenges, including:

• Co-ordinating the large group of selling shareholders
• Engaging and liaising with lawyers in New Zealand, where CTC owned and ran a substantial flight school and fleet of training aircraft
• Understanding the requirements of CTC’s debt provider
• Working with and satisfying CTC’s private equity provider
• Overall management of the transaction and timetable

Jonathan’s experience of acting for banks on providing debt and private equity houses in relation to equity was a great help in closing the deal – as he understood the approach and perspective of the Bank and Private Equity House. Also, Freeths’ existing relationship with overseas lawyers allowed him to provide the client with a single point of contact for all legal issues.

Recent Work

• Acting for Charles Wells on the sale of its brands, brewing and distribution business to Marston’s PLC.
• Acting for Wells & Young’s on the acquisition of the Courage, Directors, McEwans and Youngers beer brands from Heineken.
• Acting for access platform provider, AFI Holdings, on various acquisitions, including AJ Rentals Limited, and in relation to debt and equity funding from Santander and Rutland Private Equity.
• Acting on various high value disposals by the US conglomerate Digital Angel, including the sale of Sabre (a manufacturer of search and rescue beacons for military use) to a French listed technology group.
• Acting for the shareholders in the CTC Aviation Group on the £140+ million sale to L3 Technologies Inc.
• Acquiring Dry Lube Limited for Diversey Limited (part of packaging giant, Sealed Air Group).
• Advising Canadian company Metro Supply Chain Group on the acquisition of the Evolution Logistics Group.
• Acting on the sale of Heritage Automotive Limited, a 12 site franchised car dealership representing Audi, Peugeot, Skoda and Volkswagen and operating across the South West.

Over the last 25 years Jonathan has built up considerable knowledge around the brewing and distribution of drinks products and the relationship between drinks suppliers, wholesalers, retailers and pubs/restaurants including:

• Buying, selling and financing of pubs and restaurants
• Commercial agreements relating to brewing and distribution of drinks products, providing drinks under licence and packaging of drinks
• Protection and exploitation of drinks brands

This experience proved invaluable on the recent sale of the Charles Wells brewing, packaging and distribution business to Marston’s PLC. The transaction involved not only the sale of assets, but also a suite of contracts under which Marston’s will provide back to Charles Wells the services and products required to run the retained Charles Wells pub estate.