Eversheds has advised Inflexion Private Equity and SMD’S Management Team on the sale of SMD, a Newcastle-based remote subsea vehicle manufacturer to Zhuzhou CSR, a Hong-Kong listed Electric Company.

SMD is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of subsea vehicle systems. Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Company Limited is a subsidiary of CSR Corporation Limited, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electric locomotives.

The transaction is signed at an Enterprise Value of £120m, which will represent a return of 2.2x on completion. The completion of the sale is subject to filings with the Chinese state authorities.

The Eversheds team was led by Eversheds Partner Robin Skelton, Corporate senior associate Jonathan Pollard and Associate Becky Ashurst.

Robin commented:

“We have worked with Inflexion for many years and advised them on their investment in SMD as well as a series of industrial engineering and energy related deals, which also have yielded strong results for them. We look forward to advising them on future investments.”

Catherine Richards, Investment Director at Inflexion added:

“We thank Robin, Jonathan and Becky for their hard work and strategic guidance throughout the transaction. Having advised us on our investment into the company back in 2008 they have worked with us and SMD since and we are very pleased with this successful exit”