Vertex Law

The Vertex Law specialist waste sector team, headed by Stuart Butler-Gallie and assisted by Jeremy Licence (Property), Abbe West (Corporate) and Lorraine Williams (Outset UK, Employment) acted for Countrystyle Group, one of the South East’s fastest growing waste management, recycling and composting companies, in the successful purchase from the administrators of Bioganix Composting Limited of its  freehold site and composting business located at and operated from, Parham, Suffolk.  

As part of the acquisition Countrystyle have taken over the remaining term of a ten year contract issued by Suffolk County Council in 2005 to process source separate kitchen waste.
 

The Parham facility provides Countrystyle with a 35,000 tonne capacity which extends its green and food waste collection and processing reach and expanding its services into East Anglia. This facility complements the recently opened in-vessel facility at Ridham Dock, near Sittingbourne in Kent also operated by Countrystyle.
 

The acquisition of the Parham site is part of the Group’s ongoing development plan which has seen the company grow into one of the County’s leading privately owned waste management companies.  

Trevor Heathcote, Managing Director and majority shareholder in Countrystyle Group, said, "The purchase of the Bioganix Parham business has been a marathon due to the regulatory framework applicable to Bioganix plc and due to the perceptions of the Bioganix plc board concerning their options in disposing of their business. In such circumstances, a competent and flexible legal adviser is critical to get any deal closed. Stuart and his team, took the key role in keeping Countrystyle's interests alive in this deal and in ensuring that it was delivered. This transaction has taught me that the wrong adviser can kill a deal and the right adviser can make a deal."
 

Stuart Butler-Gallie said, "This transaction pretty much involved the full gambit of M&A structures, from, initially a public company takeover incorporating a back-to-back sale, to a share sale of a trading subsidiary of a plc, to finally, a pre-pack purchase of assets and a business as a going concern at a single site from an administrator. This involves the need for the legal team not only to understand all components of these structures but to be able to renegotiate and to restructure whilst having regard to your client's strategic reasons for making the acquisition in the first place."