Lawyer Monthly - September 2022

Lawyer Monthly Transaction Reports - Mergers & Acquisitions ABOUT THE DEAL Lawrence Stephens, a city-based law firm, acted on behalf of Amalgamated Laboratory Solutions Ltd (ALS Dental), one of the portfolio companies within the Ansor Group, on its recent acquisition of Stourbridge-based dental laboratory Precedental Ltd. With this new acquisition, ASL Dental will seek to enable Precedental to consolidate its position as a market leader. The transaction is one of more than 45 acquisitions for the four portfolio companies that comprise the Ansor Group that have been completed by Lawrence Stephens in the last two years. Led by Senior Director Steven Bernstein, with support from Senior Associate Katherine Zangana, the completion of this significant acquisition was a seamless process, thanks to the willingness and responsiveness of all parties involved. Steven Bernstein, Senior Director at Lawrence Stephens commented: “The longstanding relationship between Lawrence Stephens and Ansor Group is a testament to the mutual trust and efficiencies woven into each completion. Client relations come and go, but our commitment to Ansor extends far beyond a legal advisory role. We recognise the importance in providing a reliable and safe service, and we appreciate the trust in return. It has been a pleasure to act on each deal, and with an exciting acquisition pipeline ahead, we look forward to supporting Ansor’s continued expansion”. Peter Marson, Managing Partner, Ansor Group comments: “We are very happy with our relationship with Lawrence Stephens, which dates back more than 20 years. Our teams have worked together seamlessly on a large number of transactions and we have consistently received a high quality and responsive service. We feel confident that Lawrence Stephens understands our business and shares our excitement about our growth plans. Needless to say, we look forward to working together on many future deals.” Can you tell us more about Lawrence Stephens’ role during this acquisition? We have developed an excellent relationship with ALS Dental over the last two years and now have a well-honed and seamless legal process in place when acting on their acquisitions. We drove the process, not just by preparing all of the required legal docs, but by leading regular update meetings and providing related commercial advice to deal with issues as they arose. We kept our ears to the ground to pre-empt obstacles and to ensure that we were able to manage the needs of the client and transaction as a whole. What significant obstacles or challenges needed to be overcome in the course of the transaction? We have been through this process with ASL many times now, and as such faced no significant obstacles. What we have found with experience is that all related parties need to be involved at the outset. For example, any related property issues must be identified early on in order to avoid unnecessary delay. How does this deal fit the profile of your firm? This is our bread and butter. We are a highly skilled and efficient corporate team, able to provide quality advice and manage multiple deals, as evidenced recently when completing nine acquisitions for the Ansor portfolio companies in June. Lawyer Monthly had the pleasure to speak with Steven Bernstein, at Lawrence Stephens to give us some further insight into this transaction: July 2022 ALS Dental Acquires Precedental Ltd Advisers on the transaction: 108 LAWYERMONTHLY SEPTEMBER 2022

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