Adrian West

Head of Corporate M&A and ECM

Adrian is Head of the Corporate M&A and ECM Group. His practice is focussed on equity capital markets and M&A, and he is renowned as a leading adviser on IPOs.

Equity capital markets

Adrian is routinely engaged as either underwriter counsel or issuer counsel on Main Market and AIM IPOs and secondary fundraisings. Adrian has also advised management teams or significant shareholders on several high-profile IPOs in recent years.

Adrian regularly advises clients on the Market Abuse Regulations and compliance with the UKLA Listing Rules and AIM Rules.

Adrian is rated as a leading individual by both Chambers and Legal 500 for his equity capital markets expertise.

M&A and general corporate advisory work

Adrian has extensive experience in domestic and cross-border M&A, public takeovers, demergers and joint ventures. He also provides general corporate and strategic advice.

Selected deals

Berenberg as sponsor, bookrunner and financial adviser on the Main Market IPO of The Beauty Tech Group

DP World on the acquisition of Edge Worldwide Logistics

Bank J. Safra Sarasin on acquisition of majority stake in Saxo Bank

Forward Partners plc on their acquisition by Molten Ventures plc

FinnCap Group (renamed Cavendish Financial) on its all share merger with Cenkos Securities

Brewin Dolphin Holdings on its £1.6 billion takeover by RBC Wealth Management (Jersey) Holdings Limited (an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada)

Benchmark Holdings on is dual listing on AIM and Euronext Growth Oslo

Foster + Partners on its strategic partnership with Hennick & Company of Canada

Pets at Home on the sale of their specialist hospitals division to Linnaeus

The Hut Group on the acquisition of Claremont Ingredients and Acheson and Acheson

The founders/significant shareholders on the IPOs of THG (Hut Group), Oxford Nanopore, Deliveroo and LBG Media

TruFin on its AIM IPO and demerger of Distribution Finance Capital

Distribution Finance Capital on its AIM IPO

Berenberg as nomad and sole broker on the AIM IPO of LendInvest

Hostelworld on its Main Market IPO

Blancco Technology Group on its £175 million takeover by White Bidco Limited (an entity indirectly owned by the Francisco Partners Funds)

Liberum as nomad and sole broker on the AIM IPO of Hotel Chocolat Group

finnCap on the acquisition of Cavendish Corporate Finance and the IPO of the enlarged group on AIM

Fundraisings for numerous Main Market and AIM listed companies including: Benchmark Holdings, Serabi Gold, Distribution Finance Capital, TruFin, Hostelworld, Hotel Chocolat, eServGlobal, Jersey Oil and Gas, Capital and Regional and Staffline

Advising on tender offers and returns of capital including by CLS Holdings, Kenmare Resources and TruFin

Advising sponsors including Investec, Peel Hunt and Liberum on class one and related party transactions

Pinewood Group on its takeover by Picture Holdco a company backed by funds advised by Aermont

The Trustees of the British Steel Pension Scheme on the separation of the Scheme from Tata Steel

eServGlobal on its tripartite joint venture with MasterCard and Belgacom in relation to the HomeSend mobile payments business

The management teams on the IPOs of Pets at Home, Ascential, Exova, Spire Healthcare, British Car Auctions and Revolution Bars

Adrian West is consummate; knows the market well and adds deep equity capital market knowledge to the public deals.

Adrian provides great expertise through tailored and bespoke advice in relation to the client.

He's very thoughtful; he thinks through everything and you always feel like he's one step ahead of you.

Adrian can be trusted implicitly. He is highly sensible and pragmatic.

Adrian has seen it all, and so he can come up with solutions and be pragmatic

He is a strong and technical lawyer with a commercial approach.