Corporate and M&A solicitors

We advised Glasgow-headquartered space tech startup R3- IoT as it secured a £3.1 million investment as it prepares to expand internationally. The satellite-enabled connectivity start-up closed a seed investment round led by US-based VC Space Capital, joined by the Scottish National Investment Bank.

Other investors include the University of Strathclyde, alongside North American-based Ryan Johnson, former CEO of BlackBridge, Nathan Kundtz, CEO of Rendered.ai, and Loren Padelford, former GM of Revenue at Shopify. Scottish Enterprise also become shareholders and continue to support the company.

We advised Scottish EDGE, a competition for early stage and high growth businesses where they can win grant and loan
funding, on its recent fund raise of £1 million from Sir Tom Hunter, Kevin Dorren, Sir Brian Souter, James Watt, Lord and Lady Haughey, Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns. Each of the leading entrepreneurs committed between £100k to £500k, mainly in the form of loans. The new funding is going to be used in the next four rounds of the competition to help businesses grow.

Harper Macleod has been heavily involved with Scottish EDGE from its inception and is delighted to have been able to assist them in securing such a significant funding package. Jo Nisbet (Partner) and Paula Skinner (Partner) advised on the deal.

We advised Ardersier Port (Scotland) Limited on the purchase of the former McDermotts fabrication yard in Ardersier. The move will see the new owners, a privately owned business registered in Scotland owned by Steve Regan and Tony O’Sullivan, transform the site into a multi-disciplinary facility with the purpose of supporting the United Kingdom’s Energy Transition plans.

Chris Kerr advised on the deal along with fellow colleagues Ross Thomson, Michael Conroy and Peter Ferguson. The Ardersier Port site is the largest brownfield port in the United Kingdom, including 400 acres of port area with access to a 2.2km quay and 350 acres of statutory harbour authority. It has been identified as one of three sites on the east coast of the United Kingdom with the size, scale, shape, and location capable of being an Offshore Renewable Energy Hub Port.

We advised Equitix on the Scottish aspects of the acquisition of a 17.5% stake in Beatrice offshore wind farm which is a 588MW offshore wind farm located 13km off the northeast coast of Scotland. The wind farm comprises 84 Siemens 7MW turbines and has a 15-year maintenance agreement in place with Siemens.

Our Energy Team led by David Bone and Corporate Team led by Stephen Chan worked on this deal and our role focused on due diligence and the transfer of the shares in the target company which was Scottish.

We acted on behalf of the Clyde Munro Group to acquire eight private dental practices across various locations in Scotland with a cumulative value in excess of £6.3m. The Clyde Munro Group, which provide both NHS and private dentistry, has a turnover of over £20 million and operates 52 practices throughout Scotland, working with over 200 dental associates to provide treatment to approximately 400,000 patients.

We advised Scottish fintech company Aveni on an investment of £1.1 million to launch a ground-breaking Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform which is leading the way in a new era for speech analytics in business.

Aveni Detect uses the latest advances in AI and natural language processing (NLP) to automate processes direct from the customer voice. This allows companies to achieve greater efficiencies in quality assurance whilst significantly improving client experience, staff training, and the ability to identify vulnerable customers.

We advised the selling shareholders of Inverness-based telecoms firm, Highland Network Limited trading as HighNet, on its acquisition by West Sussex-based Focus Group – one of the UK’s fastest-growing business communications and technology solutions providers.

HighNet, a family run business, was founded in Inverness in 1994 and also has a base in Glasgow. Focus Group is a £120m business with locations across the UK and over 550 experts providing innovative business solutions for in the region of 25,000 customers. HighNet will continue to operate under its brand name, with current managing director, David J Siegel,leading the existing management team and employees, aiming to grow its annual turnover to £20 million as part of the larger group.

We advised G & A Barnie Group Limited (GAB) on its complex succession planning project involving the introduction of its next generation Management Board to the ownership structure.

GAB is an electrical projects contractor established in Wick in 1985 with branches in Inverness, Wick, Orkney, Stornoway, Elgin and Aberdeen. Services offered by GAB include mechanical installation, electrical installation, renewable energy, fire & security, alarms, CCTV, water treatment, maintenance and servicing.

We advised Bara Windscreens Ltd (trading as Alba Windscreens) on its successful management buy-out. We helped implement a deal which enabled the new Managing Director to buy-out one of the shareholders, ensuring that Alba Windscreens will continue to be able to provide its insurance approved, vehicle windscreen repair and replacement service throughout Glasgow, Ayrshire and Central Scotland.

We advised Golden Casket (Greenock) Limited in relation to the transfer of the shares in Greenock Morton Football Club to Fan membership organisation Morton Club Together (MCT). The move makes the Championship club now officially fan owned, with MCT increasing its stake from 15% to a little under 90%, thus taking majority ownership and completing a two-and-a-half year process.

The long-standing relationship between Golden Casket (the Rae family’s firm and the club’s previous owners) and the club has been brought to a close now that the takeover has been concluded, with outgoing chairman Crawford Rae – son of former chair Douglas – expressing his belief that the move to fan ownership is a momentous day for the team.