Good deals will still attract the institutional investors

Oct 29 2008 By nebusiness.co.uk

LAWYERS at Walker Morris advised Altium Capital Limited on Redhall Group plc’s share placing to raise £20m and recommended cash offer for Newcastle engineering plc Chieftain Group.

Redhall Group, the Wakefield specialist engineering support service group, announced a recommended cash offer for Chieftain of approximately £18.6m at the end of September. The deal, which has now been backed by Chieftain shareholders, is to be funded from the proceeds of the placing of 8,163,266 new Redhall Shares at 245 pence each with institutional investors and from Redhall’s existing cash resources.

The Walker Morris team, comprising corporate partner Richard Naish and corporate associate James Ryan, advised Redhall Group’s sole nominated adviser, broker, financial adviser and underwriter, Manchester-based Altium Capital Limited, on the fully underwritten placing to raise £20m and generally in relation to the recommended cash offer.

Redhall plans to expand the successful Newcastle company which gives the Yorkshire business access to the fast-growing oil and gas sector and defence customers.

David Jackson, Redhall chairman and chief executive, said: “This acquisition presents an excellent strategic fit with Redhall’s existing group with both complementary skills and geographic locations while enhancing our offering within our core target markets of nuclear and oil and gas.

“The outlook in our markets remains positive and we expect this acquisition to enable us to continue our growth and maximise the opportunities available to us in our chosen high growth sectors.”

Walker Morris corporate partner Richard Naish said: “We are delighted to be acting for Altium in connection with the placing to fund this public offer.

“It is pleasing to see that in these times of great uncertainty in financial markets, good deals with growth potential are still able to attract institutional investors.”

Hammonds LLP (Steven Glover) acted for Redhall Group plc.