DLA and Maclays lead on Jane Norman pre-pack

A team from DLA Piper led by partner Sarah Coucher is advising joint administrators Alastair Beveridge, Simon Appell and Anne O’Keefe from Zolfo Cooper as well as a syndicate of lending banks on the restructuring.

A team from Maclays led by Glasgow-based head of restructuring Michael Hughes has scored a role advising retail group Edinburgh Woollen Mill, which is purchasing 31 of Jane Norman’s 94 standalone stores across the UK and Ireland under a pre-packaged administration sale.

The sale also includes stock from all 94 stores, as well as from the retailer’s UK and overseas concessions.

The administrators have also arranged a transitional services agreement with Edinburgh Woollen Mill for another 28 stores and a number of concessions to allow all parties time to consider their future. The remaining 35 stores will be closed.

Coucher commented: “This deal demonstrates our specialist team’s strength in depth. We ran a number of bids simultaneously, whilst advising on and implementing complex corporate and financial structures against the background of a pending insolvency and intense creditor pressure.”

DLA Piper has previously acted on high profile retail restructuring mandates including All Saints, Mosaic Group (owner of Oasis, Warehouse, Karen Millen and Principles), Whittards, Focus DIY, Zavvi, Mark One and Allders.