BELFAST law firm Tughans has been named Northern Ireland’s most active corporate law firm after topping the Experian MarketIQ M&A regional league table for the eighth year in a row.
Tughans advised on 79 deals during 2022, which is 40 per cent more than the firm in second place, and an increase on 2021. The overall deal value exceeded £1bn.
On a quarterly basis, Tughans has been ranked by Experian as the top performing Northern Irish law firm, in terms of deal volume, in 25 of the past 29 quarters.
Tughans’ corporate team, working closely alongside the real estate team, led by David Jones; banking team, led by Fearghal O’Loan; employment team, led by Anna Beggan; and contracts & technology team, led by Adrian O’Connell, advised on a broad spectrum of deals across a range of sectors.
This included acting for Uform on a significant investment by Cardinal Capital, acting for the Business Growth Fund on its investments in the Mzuri Group and Clarke Group, acting on the sale of Blue Zinc IT to ClearCourse, and acting on the sale of Renewable Energy Devices Ltd to Octopus Energy.
Tughans’ managing partner Patrick Brown said: “To be the most active advisor in Northern Ireland for the eighth consecutive year reflects the talent within our transactional teams.
“This placing comes as we enter a hugely exciting time for our firm, as we move our headquarters to The Ewart on Bedford Square, which will support both our continued growth and development of our culture of intelligence, collaboration, and innovation.”
Head of corporate James Donnelly said: “It's been another incredibly busy year for M&A and investment activity and we are grateful for being engaged in so many interesting transactions. The Experian rankings are really a testament to the continued dedication and ambitions of our clients. ”
Corporate partner John McGuckian added: “Our team have worked with leading businesses and investors of all sizes across a variety of sectors in 2022, and we are pleased to see the number of transactions rise once again over the past 12 months.”
On the outlook for 2023, corporate partner Paul O’Brien, said: “The firm has had a very strong start to the year and the pipeline remains healthy.”
