Leading independent law firm Travers Smith LLP has announced the hire of Jessica Craske as Head of Planning.

Leading independent law firm Travers Smith LLP has announced the hire of Andrew Howard as a partner into its successful Employment team, further strengthening its practice. Following Andrew's recruitment, the practice now includes six partners and 24 lawyers, and continues to expand. 

Travers Smith is advising Peel Pepper (UK) Limited ("BidCo"), a company indirectly wholly-owned by Peel Holdings Group Limited, on its voluntary cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Harworth Group plc ("Harworth") not already owned by BidCo or other wholly-owned subsidiaries of Peel Holdings Group Limited.

Travers Smith has advised Bowmark Capital on the financing arrangements supporting its acquisition of a majority shareholding in InfraXmedia from Opus Origin.

Travers Smith has advised DP World on the transfer of six contract logistics sites serving major grocery customers, with more than two million square feet of warehouse capacity and 2,000 personnel from GXO Logistics. GXO’s transfer of the sites was a regulatory condition to the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) approval of GXO’s acquisition of Wincanton.

Travers Smith has advised long-standing AIM-listed client TruFin plc on the disposal of Playstack Limited and its c.£80m return of capital to shareholders and Rule 9 waiver following the sale of its 84.5 per cent interest in leading UK games publisher Playstack Limited to VantageCo Limited for an enterprise value of £125m. 

Travers Smith has advised longstanding client Autotrader Group plc, the UK's largest automotive marketplace, on the refinancing and upsizing of its syndicated facilities agreement, comprising a £600 million term and revolving credit facility provided by a syndicate of 10 lenders.

The message from Dame Anne Glover at Travers Smith's 5th annual Alternative Insights Summit last month was direct: UK pension funds should invest more in early-stage venture and growth stage capital. The figures certainly support that view.

Signs of a marked acceleration in UK sanctions enforcement continue to emerge. In the months since our last update, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation ("OFSI") has now deployed its new settlement scheme across multiple cases, imposed penalties on both UK and non-UK entities (including where proactive approaches to establishing ownership and control linkages to designated persons were not taken), and signalled clearly that its enforcement focus will extend beyond Russia to other sanctions regimes - most notably, Iran.

A chatbot that sounds human, an image generator that produces photorealistic content, a voice cloning tool - they all make it harder to distinguish machine-produced content from human-created work. The risks of sophisticated generative and interactive AI - misinformation, manipulation at scale, impersonation, and fraud - are growing.

Travers Smith advised Triple Point on the origination of a senior revolving credit facility to Plend, an FCA-authorised consumer lender focused on providing responsible, affordable credit to borrowers underserved by traditional high-street lenders.

Travers Smith has advised long-standing client, Volex plc, the specialist integrated manufacturer of critical power and data transmission products, on its move from AIM to the Equity Shares (Commercial Companies) Category of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Travers Smith LLP has advised Inflexion and its portfolio company Noventis Safety on the refinancing of Noventis Safety's financing arrangements. The refinancing was supported by Ares Management and HSBC UK.

Travers Smith has advised Bridgepoint Credit on the financing arrangements in relation to the acquisition of AirStart Inc. by Sentry Aerospares, a portfolio company of Acorn Capital Management.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry 

Every firm carrying out payment, e-money or banking services in the UK should pay close attention to the consultation paper titled Modernising Payment Services Regulation (the CP), published by His Majesty's Treasury (HMT) on 14 July 2026. While Bastille Day may not have been a deliberate choice of publication date (and we are not cynical enough to suggest that there is a pre-summer holiday race to publish taking place among policymakers), it is suitably appropriate, as this paper may herald a genuine revolution in the regulation of payments in the UK.

On 4 June this year, HMRC quietly updated its published guidance in relation to input tax recovery for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. These changes to HMRC's internal VAT Input Tax Manual clarify an improved position for the way in which input tax on asset management costs can be recovered, but appear to make recovery of input tax on administration costs more difficult.

The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill was published in January 2026 and has been controversial from the start. One of its key aims is to cap ground rents in existing long residential leases at £250 a year from an implementation date in late 2028, reducing in 2068 to a peppercorn.  This follows from a previous consultation under the last Conservative government in 2023/24 which weighed up five different options for tackling excessive ground rents.

Travers Smith advised ProService Building Services Marketplace plc ("ProService") on its refinancing, comprising the issue of up to £25 million floating rate secured convertible loan notes due 2031 to Ravensworth (International) Limited and entry into a £35 million asset-based lending revolving credit facility with Leumi UK Group Limited.