OUR TEAM
James is a Partner in our Corporate, Commercial & Regulatory team, whose practice regularly deals with high value complex corporate transactions. He regularly advises business owners on the sale of their businesses and acquirers of businesses across a range of sectors. He has wide experience of transactional corporate matters focusing on mergers & acquisitions and disposals as well as investments (including venture capital transactions), shareholder arrangements, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations, demergers and succession planning.
Examples of deals which James has advised on include:
- Acting for Halfords on the acquisition of Scottish-based McConechy’s Tyre Service in a deal comprising of 330 skilled employees across 60 sites in Scotland and the North of England.
- Acting for the Tchibo group (one of the leading coffee and food service providers in Europe) on the acquisition of the Scottish headquartered Matthew Algie.
- Acting for the Webhelp group on UK aspects of KKR’s exit from the Webhelp group to Belgian-based investment holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert in a deal with a reported enterprise value of circa €2.4 billion (having previously acted for the Indian-owned Hero group on the sale of HEROtsc now known as Webhelp UK to the Webhelp group in a deal with a reported enterprise value of £77m).
- Acting for the Webhelp group on corporate transactions including acquisitions from Serco as well as the acquisition of owner managed OEE Consulting and its subsequent merger with Webhelp group company Gobeyond.
- Acting for the Kent Foods group on various transactions including the buyout of Connacht Gold together with the acquisitions of owner-managed Velgrove Foods, Tom Walker & Sons, Paramount Chocolate, Baileys of Portsmouth and Henley Bridge Ingredients.
- Acting for the Balmer family on the sale of a 68-bed care home and 58 bed care home to Renaissance Care.
- Acting for leading independent Scottish accountancy practice Campbell Dallas on the acquisition of its business by the Baldwins Group (now part of Azets).
- Acting for the founders of leading energy services firm Everwarm on its merger with Lakehouse (creating an enlarged group with annual sales of circa. £240m).
- Acting for the owner managers of Castle Computers on its sale to Kick ICT Group in a deal that was reported as creating Scotland’s largest independent IT services business specialising in the SME market.
- Acting for various clients on group reorganisation projects including demergers, share buy backs and capital reductions.
James is a “Recommended Lawyer” in Corporate and Commercial in UK legal directory, The Legal 500 and he is a dual qualified solicitor in both Scotland and England & Wales. He also coordinates the Germany country desk, part of Harper Macleod’s international offering.
"Harper Macleod has not only been very efficient but has always shown a high level of availability, with in particular very fast reactivity which has been very helpful. We also appreciated they could take charge in some side aspects of the deal with adequate coordination with their partners. Efficiency is one thing but the quality of the relationship is another key factor, when it is as good as the one we had not only does it make life nicer but it also contributes to operating with a higher level of efficiency. Our experience with Harper Macleod and in particular with James MacGregor and his team has proved to be a very satisfying one allowing us to finalise a deal in a positive way."
"I would like to say a massive thank you to James and Ross for your extensive time and effort on this transaction and ensuring as smooth a completion as has been achieved. You have been first class and a pleasure to work with. I would not hesitate in recommending your services."