Dains Accountants has now expanded its operations with two strategic acquisitions. This acquisition has benefits for all involved.
McInerney Saunders provides commercial and advisory support to businesses in Ireland and internationally, with previous collaborations with Dains. They hope to enhance their value to clients with support from Dains in terms of technology and resources.
Magma provide services to individuals and owner managed businesses to reach their potential. This acquisition is set to aid Magma is expanding their reach and elevating opportunities for staff and clients.
Mullany Walsh Maxwells LLP provided legal counsel to McInerney Saunders.
Having worked with McInerney Saunders on many transactions for many years, we were delighted to be asked to be their legal advisers when the need arose.
Q&A with Conor Mullany
Conor, can you expand further on your role during this acquisition and the process of providing legal advice to McInerney Saunders?
We have worked with McInerney Saunders on many transactions over the years, so it was particularly gratifying to be asked to advise the Partners on this very significant next step of their business journey. We know Dains Accountants through our membership of the UK200 Group, a professional services group of Accountants and Lawyers across the UK and internationally, of which we are the sole Irish legal member and McInerney Saunders is the sole Irish accounting member. The MWM Team was involved start to finish, from advising on the heads of agreement, to a corporate restructuring of the various parts of the business, through to the negotiation of the Share Purchase Agreement and ancillary documentation which required the involvement of our property and employment colleagues in MWM.
As Managing Partner with your expertise area being mergers and acquisitions, is there a perfected process for projects like this one or is it constantly adapting and changing?
Although the core documentation is much the same for each transaction, whether it be a share purchase or an asset purchase, there is no one size fits all, so you do have to constantly adapt and change as you go through each transaction. Every transaction brings its own complexities with its own twists and turns en route to completion, requiring you not only to be able to navigate the documentation through negotiation and drafting but also requiring you to be strategic and capable of making key legal decisions throughout that process. It is important to know when to, as such, “step in” and also “step out” to allow the transaction to progress to achieve the best outcome for the client .
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced during this acquisition and how you and your team had to address it to continue the project without trouble?
The restructuring of the different parts of the existing business and how the new structure fit into the overall transaction required a lot of consideration and then subsequently detailed discussion. Albeit, you are negotiating throughout to obtain the best possible result for your client, it always helps when the legal advisers on the other side are commercially minded and ready to find solutions as required, which certainly was our experience on this transaction.
What does your support for a client entail and is there any provided once the deal is done to ensure their success?
In MWM, we work very closely with our clients, often well in advance of any potential sale or acquisition, helping a client with their business needs as they arise and providing, with the benefit of our experience over many years of being involved in mergers and acquisitions, the required legal guidance and insight, whether that is helping the client be in shape for a potential sale or being best placed to make an acquisition that fits a client’s growth plan. We look forward to continuing to work with and provide appropriate advice to McInerney Saunders as the business integrates with Dains to ensure its continued success. We are excited to be working alongside the partners providing legal advice and insight as Dains expands its presence in Ireland.
What does the future hold for Mullany Walsh Maxwells LLP this year, and are there any projects which you are personally excited for?
2024 is another exciting year for MWM with two new lawyers coming on board increasing the size of our team, allowing MWM to further improve our offering to clients. We have a number of transactions on both the buyer and seller side that are active in Q1 2024, one of those transactions, which is a sizeable transaction, is in a very interesting area and due to complete by the end of Q1 2024, with another client going to market later in the year, which the MWM Team are looking forward to working on with the client.
