Corporate Scotland still open for deal-making as law firm hails £50m of activity

Paula Skinner is a partner at Harper Macleod, the law firm with offices across Scotland including in Edinburgh and Glasgow. | Other 3rd Party

Harper Macleod, which has its main offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, said that since the lockdown began on 23 March, its corporate team has completed 12 deals remotely, with about 20 more due to complete before the end of April. The deals total more than £50 million in value.

Among those, the firm advised lead investor Par Equity, the Edinburgh-based venture capital house, on a recent deal which saw subsea clean energy specialist EC-OG receiving £1.6m from an investment consortium.

Harper Macleod partner Paula Skinner said: “The lockdown has actually coincided with one of the busiest periods we’ve had in recent years, and we have some even larger transactions set to complete over the next few weeks. It's encouraging that we've seen quite a lot of investments, some of them completely new ones and some further rounds of investment.”

She added: “Like every other business, we are trying our best to adapt to the new 'normal'. We have clients across every sector of the Scottish economy and there are many common challenges – whether those are employment related, contracts and suppliers or issues.

“While the health and well-being of everyone is paramount, it is important at the same time that we do everything possible to ensure the survival of the businesses that make up our economy, so that the recovery can be as strong as possible once things return to a more normal footing.”