AG's Manchester Corporate team, which has advised on over £12.5bn of M&A, private equity and IPO deals in the last two years, is starting 2017 with a positive outlook for the North West deals market.

The team had an outstanding 2016, highlighted by:

• advising on more than 40 deals totalling over £6.8bn
• advising many of the region's highest profile companies, such as Co-operative Group on its sale of 298 stores to McColls, Accrol on its £93m AIM IPO, CCL Industries on its $1.13bn acquisition of Innovia, Fircroft on its acquisition of One Key Resources, Norcos on its acquisition of Adobe Home Products, The Hut on its acquisition of Hale Country Club, Premaitha Health on its acquisition of Yourgene Bioscience, the sale of Bulldog Skincare, the sale by SSE plc of 16.7% of its stake in Scotia Gas Networks Limited for £620m and Dock 10 on its acquisition of post-production company 422
• dominating the local private equity market, advising the majority of the region's private equity houses on deals such as the sale of Enterprise Ventures to Mercia Technologies PLC, MPM Products' sale to ECI, Foresight PE's investment into Utilities Design & Planning Limited, LDC's investment in Ellis Whittam, NorthEdge's investment in Direct Healthcare, ECI's investment in ImageSound and Livingbridge's investment in Exclaimer
• winning major new clients Siemens, Dixons Carphone, BASF, Radius Payment Solutions and Premaitha Health – adding to AG's already incredible client roster which includes the likes of Rolls-Royce, Peel Holdings, Capita, Wolseley, Bruntwood, JD Sports Fashion, The Hut, PZ Cussons, Norcros, Moneysupermarket, Speedy Hire, Clinigen, mydentist, Victrex and the majority of local private equity houses
• cementing its position as by far the largest legal team in the region by the appointment of Shelley McGivern and Duncan Wilson as partners and Jemma Clarke and George Danczak as Managing Associates

In the last month alone, the team advised on CCL Industries' $1.13bn acquisition of Innovia, Premaitha Health's acquisition of Yourgene Bioscience and LDC's investment in Chargepoint Technology.

Commenting on the team's achievements, private equity partner Andy Green said: "We had a sustained pipeline of activity in 2016, advising not just on major deals, but also on a high volume of medium and smaller deals and across many sectors. Although the Brexit vote slowed the IPO market, we saw little effect on M&A or private equity activity and we expect 2017 to be a strong year for M&A, private equity and IPOs."

Notes to editor:

AG's Manchester Corporate team is known in the local deal-doing community to be the top legal team in the north west. In 2015, it achieved the largest total deals value of any legal team in the region, having advised on over £5.75bn of M&A, private equity and IPO deals.

In 2016, the team won or was shortlisted for all of the major local corporate and PE deal awards.

• Won Legal Adviser of the year at the Real Deals Private Equity awards - April 2016
• Won Law Firm of the Year at the TheBusinessDesk.com Rainmaker awards - June 2016
• Won Prolific Team of the Year at the TheBusinessDesk.com Rainmaker awards - June 2016
• Won Exit of the year – Private Equity at the TheBusinessDesk.com Rainmaker awards - June 2016
• Andrew Green was shortlisted for Rising Star of the Year at the Rainmaker Awards - June 2016
• Shortlisted for Law Firm of the Year at the Insider Dealmakers awards - October 2016
• Shortlisted for Law Firm – Deal Structuring at the Unquote awards - October 2016
• Shortlisted for Private Equity Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards