Slaughters, Wragges and Eversheds on target on tenpin bowling takeover
Slaughter and May, Wragge & Co and Eversheds have taken lead roles on AMF Bowling's £27m acquisition of tenpin bowling rival Hollywood Bowl. Slaughters advised longstanding client AMF on the £27m purchase from Mitchells & Butlers, which owns a large portfolio of entertainment venues around the UK. The transaction creates one of the UK's largest tenpin bowling companies, with annual sales of more than £60m.
August 27, 2010 at 09:22 AM
3 minute read
Slaughter and May, Wragge & Co and Eversheds have taken lead roles on AMF Bowling's £27m acquisition of tenpin bowling rival Hollywood Bowl.
Slaughters advised longstanding client AMF on the £27m purchase from Mitchells & Butlers, which owns a large portfolio of entertainment venues around the UK. The transaction creates one of the UK's largest tenpin bowling companies, with annual sales of more than £60m.
The Slaughters team was led by corporate partner Mark Horton and real estate partner John Nevin. The magic circle firm also advised AMF on the refinancing of its bank facilities with Barclays, while the bank was advised by DLA Piper.
Eversheds Birmingham head Susan Lewis took the lead role advising Mitchells & Butlers, assisted by real estate partner Iftkhar Ahmed. Mitchells & Butlers is now looking to sell the remaining freehold property interests in four of the sites for at least £12m.
Elsewhere, Wragge & Co advised two of the investors involved in funding the deal. Corporate partner Andy Stylianou advised long-term client CBPE Capital on its £20m debt and equity investment in the joint venture.
In a separate transaction, Wragges real estate partner Robert Caddick advised Columbus UK Real Estate Fund, part of Schroders' real estate and asset management business, which provided £15m to AMF in a sale and leaseback of nine AMF bowling alleys, which was used in part to fund the Hollywood Bowl acquisition.
Slaughters' Nevin commented: "It was a huge logistical exercise as it involved five separate transactions which were all inter-conditional and wrapped up within one deal. We advised AMF on buying the bowling business from Mitchells & Butlers; the Barclays refinancing; the reorganisation of the AMF group; the private equity investment from Close Brothers and assisted BP Collins on the sale and lease back with Columbus."
He added: "It was certainly an unusual and complex deal as it involved an extraordinary amount of work to co-ordinate all of the transactions and bring them all together to achieve a simultaneous completion."
Wragges' Caddick added: "This important transaction shows positive investment activity and the market's ability to respond innovatively to constrained liquidity. The deal involved understanding the impact of other transactions being undertaken by AMF in order to enable Columbus to structure its agreement, negotiate the terms and complete its due diligence."
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