CMS leads the pack as Scotland’s go-to dealmaker

The firm was involved in 98 transactions between January and December 2014 worth an aggregate total of £7.72bn, significantly ahead of its nearest competitors in both number and overall value of deals during the last calendar year.

CMS also topped the table of deal initiators, instigating 16 transactions worth over £268m, a figure which outstripped the combined value of all other firms which made the list.

The overall figure of 98 deals included transactions carried out by Dundas & Wilson which combined with CMS on 1 May 2014, creating a strong presence in the UK’s three key financial centres of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow and in its energy capital, Aberdeen where the firm has been established for 21 years.

Stephen Millar, CMS’ Executive Partner for Scotland, said: “These deal figures highlight the success of last May’s combination between CMS and Dundas & Wilson. We have seen a smooth bedding-in period with a marked rise in client work across key practice areas including corporate finance which is underlined by these deals figures.”

Douglas Crawford, an Aberdeen-based Corporate Finance Partner at CMS said: “2014 was an excellent year for our firm across Scotland in terms of both the number of transactions we were engaged in and the aggregate value of these deals.

“These included advising the Aberdeen-based Ferguson Group’s owner on the sale of his container solutions business, a deal valued at £320m; advising Graphite Capital on the MBO of oil rig repair business ICR Integrity from Gresham in what was one of the biggest private equity backed deals of 2014; and advising Land Securities on the £224m sale of Scotland’s second-largest covered shopping centre, The Centre in Livingston which totals more than one million sq ft and houses more than 160 retailers.”

In addition to topping the Scottish deals listings CMS has been able to assist many Scotland based businesses as they export their services to the rest of the UK and internationally with the help of the firm’s offices in Rio, Dubai, Muscat and Amsterdam, among many others.

Stephen Millar further commented: “It is pleasing to assist many of the most prestigious businesses in the domestic market but also be readily able to offer assistance as they seek to export their goods and services to many other parts of the world”.