Squire Patton Boggs has advised AIM-listed client Accumuli plc on a recommended takeover by Manchester-based IT security company NCC Group plc, which was announced this morning. Accumuli is a leading, rapidly growing, UK-based independent specialist, with offices in Basingstoke, Cambridge and Leeds, that advises on IT security and risk management, including issues such as cybercrime, consumerisation of IT, and Big Data. The transaction sees Main Market-listed NCC pay approximately £55m for the Accumuli business in a cash and shares deal.

Led by Corporate partner and capital markets expert Giles Distin, the Squire Patton Boggs team advising Accumuli included Rob Shakespeare, Roya Soudbakhsh and Emma Mason in London and, from Manchester, Patrick Ford and Victoria Carpenter provided specialist advice on share options and tax issues. .

“We were delighted to advise Accumuli, alongside their financial advisors, MXC Capital and Oakley Capital, on this potentially transformative transaction,” commented Giles Distin. “This is the second successive takeover bid on which our teams have advised in the last three months. There appears to be an uptick in takeover activity in the UK over the last two quarters, with both foreign and domestic bidders realizing that the UK continues to operate an open takeovers market and, with a strengthening economy, bidders can acquire quality businesses.”