Dickinson Dees has scored a plum role advising Parkdean Holidays on the UK caravan park operator's £135.3m acquisition by buy-out house PD Parks, as the leisure sector continues to generate a stream of bluechip transactional work.

The Newcastle giant landed a direct instruction ahead of national competition to advise longstanding client Parkdean on the deal, which was announced last week.

Dickinson Dees fielded a team led by corporate partner Jonathan Hewitt and including corporate associate Michael Babcock and real estate associate Malcolm Wood on the deal.

The top 50 firm has been a longstanding adviser to Parkdean and advised on the company's admission to Alternative Investment Market in 2002.

The agreement, which remains subject to regulatory approval, sees the company approve a cash takeover by PD Parks, a UK-based acquisition vehicle backed by London private equity house Alchemy Partners.

Parkdean is the UK's second-largest holiday parks operator with 20 sites across Scotland, Wales, East Anglia and southwest England. It has previously used a clutch of firms including Morisons for its regional work.

Macfarlanes is to advise PD Parks with corporate partner Simon Perry spearheading the deal team for the City firm alongside corporate assistant Luke Powell.

Norton Rose corporate finance associate Paul Whitelock acted for Parkdean's financial advisers, Charles Stanley.

The deal marks the latest development in the busy UK leisure market, which has recently spawned a number of advisory roles for UK firms.

Ashurst acted this month for US buy-out giant Blackstone on its £267m acquisition of UK holiday park operator Center Parcs, while southeast firm DMH Stal-lard scooped one of its largest-ever mandates in January to advise opposite Linklaters on Graphite Capital's £130m buy-out of holiday home group Cinque Ports.