Paul Macdonald


OUR TEAM
Paul is a corporate lawyer with more than 12 years experience of providing advice and assistance on corporate and commercial matters across a variety of industry sectors. He has wide general corporate and M&A experience, with specific expertise in acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, corporate structuring, and group reorganisations.
As well as working on large cross-border transactions, Paul works with SMEs throughout the UK, with a particular focus on advising family and owner-managed businesses. He is one of the corporate, commercial & regulatory team’s key advisers on business succession transactions, with specialist knowledge around the implementation of MBOs, MBIs, VIMBOs, and employee ownership.
Notable highlights include:
- Advised on the vendor induced management buy-in (VIMBI) of Scotwood Interiors Limited
- Advised on the restructuring and subsequent sale of the global wind turbine installation business Windhoist Group to European fund manager STAR Capital for an undisclosed consideration. Windhoist, an owner-managed business which is headquartered in Scotland with operations in Germany, Morocco, Ireland, South Africa and Australia, has installed more than 6,000 turbines worldwide, generating more than 11GW in capacity.
- Advised JW Grant, a Renfrewshire-based building and timber supplies company, on its purchase of Lothian Building Supplies in East Lothian. JW Grant is a major independent builders’ merchant in the west of Scotland, and this acquisition extends the business’ reach to the east of the country.
- Advising family-owned company, Connelly Group Holdings (CSS), on multiple corporate acquisitions including:
- Scottish Security & Fire Systems (2024)
- Brookfield Alarms Limited (2023)
- Intruder Detection and Electrical Services Limited (2022)
- Graham Robertson Electrical & Security Limited (2020)
- AFA Fire and Security Limited (2018)
- certain business and assets of Securus Group Limited (2018)
- the succession planning exercise resulting in CSS acquiring the entire shareholding held by one of CSS’ founding families through multiple share buybacks (2017)
- T&D Security Systems Limited (2016)
- Castle Security Group Limited (2014)
- Advising leading Scottish accountancy firm Scott-Moncrieff on the sale of its business and assets to Azets.
- Advising on the sale of Glasgow-based insurance broker Calcluth & Sangster to Greenwood Moreland/JMG group.
- Advised Dazzle & Inkspot Ltd, a family-run business of more than 50 years, on its transition to employee ownership, marking them as the 100th Scottish business to adopt this model.
- Advised on the sale of insurance broker CCRS Brokers Limited to the London headquartered Seventeen Group
- Advised on the sale of Electro Guard Fire & Security Ltd to, security industry consolidator, Scutum UK Group, a subsidiary of the French-owned Scutum Group
- Assisting the founder of one of Scotland’s leading game meat suppliers, Castle Game (Scotland) Ltd, on a business succession transaction. Castle Game supplies an array of top restaurants across the country, including exclusive Michelin-starred establishments in Edinburgh.
The Legal 500 ranks Paul as a “Recommended Lawyer” in Corporate & Commercial: EDI & GLA.
INSIGHTS