Teams employed by Hill Dickinson in Liverpool, Manchester, London and Hong Kong pushed more than 80 transactions across the line during the first half of 2020. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool law firm Hill Dickinson says its corporate and banking team completed deals worth a total of £1.1bn in the first six months of 2020.

Its corporate team is based across four offices – Liverpool, Manchester, London and Hong Kong. They advised on more than 80 transactions from January to June 2020, many of which were completed after the start of the UK’s lockdown period in March.

They included the first completed IPO (at the time) of a commercial business on any UK stock exchange and one of the largest secondary fundraisings by an AIM company during lockdown.

Based in St Paul’s Square in Liverpool city centre, Hill Dickinson is  continuing to expand to meet client demand. Recent hires have boosted the corporate and banking team to more than 70 specialist lawyers.

In corporate M&A deals included advising long standing client Stobart Group on its £8.55m acquisition of Stobart Air and Propius from the administrators of Connect Airways in April. As well as the sale in May 2020 of the Eddie Stobart and Stobart Group brands to Eddie Stobart Logistics for £10m. Both were completed during lockdown.

Craig Scott, Hill Dickinson’s national head of corporate, said: “Our teams in Liverpool, London and Manchester all remained very active throughout the lockdown period despite many businesses naturally being forced to re-examine or temporarily pause their plans.

“That our performance has remained so positive under such challenging conditions for businesses is testament both to the dedication of our people in finding solutions to help support our clients’ ambitions throughout this difficult period.”