Taylor Wessing has advised Hilton Food Group plc (“Hilton”) on its conditional acquisition of Icelandic Group UK Limited (“Seachill”) from Icelandic fund FSI for an enterprise value of £84 million. Seachill is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fish, including to Tesco, and the acquisition will enable Hilton to extend its protein offering from meat to fish.

The transaction, which is a class 1 transaction under the Listing Rules, is to be financed by an underwritten placing (with Numis as sponsor, financial adviser and joint book-runner, and Panmure Gordon as joint book- runner) and new debt facilities. Completion of the transaction is subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting to take place on 6 November.

Robert Watson OBE CEO of Hilton Food Group plc said:

“We have been delighted with the advice and work done by our legal team at Taylor Wessing on this strategically important transaction for Hilton Food Group”.

William Belcher, corporate partner leading on the transaction, said:

“We were really pleased to work with Hilton on this deal, which opens up a major new market for them. We look forward to continuing to work with the group as it broadens its offering to its UK and overseas customers”.

The corporate team also included Tandeep Minhas, James Homan, Amy Coburn, Charlotte Ford and Claudia Frame. The banking and finance team was led by Martin Yells with support from Lerika Joubert, Gareth McCarter, Katie Horbury, Kate Bowden and Misha Sachania. The tax team was led by Richard Carson and supported by Harriet Revington. The extensive due diligence team comprised Stephanie Creed and Andrew Granger (employment), Mark Smith, Georgie Wardrop and Emma Aylwin (pensions), Sian Skelton and Michelle Sally (commercial and IT), Louise Tobutt (real estate), Holly Grundon (environmental), Simon Jupp (IP), Richard Craig (data protection) and Michael Tan and Jane Yang from Taylor Wessing Shanghai.