DWF acquires ailing Cobbetts in pre-pack deal
DWF has rescued ailing firm Cobbetts in a pre-pack deal confirmed by DWF’s managing partner Andrew Leaitherland in an email to staff earlier this afternoon.
Andrew Leaitherland
DWF has also now sent out a statement confirming its intention to acquire Cobbetts. The deal must still be approved by the courts, as Cobbetts filed a notice to appoint administrators on Monday (30 January 2013), but if the deal is approved, DWF will begin transferring people across in the next seven days.
The fact that DWF was interested in rescuing the Cobbetts business was reported on TheLawyer.com this morning (31 January 2013).
According to a statement from DWF, Cobbetts had “built an infrastructure reflecting the buoyant economy of the mid 2000s and had put in place plans to reduce costs. However, poorer than expected trading in November and December last year caused the firm to review its financial position and subsequently obtain an interim statutory moratorium to enable a sale of the business and its assets.”
In a statement, Leaitherland said: “DWF’s plans to grow, in a strategic, targeted way have been clearly set out and this move supports that goal. I am confident that the merging of the two firms would bring genuine benefits to both and, importantly, the joint client base. There are many synergies between the two firms in terms of the sectors in which we operate and this collaboration will further strengthen our existing business. I am very much looking forward to welcoming the new team to DWF.”
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Readers' comments (24)
Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:20 pm
Looking at the comments, not many people know what Pre-pack means.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:21 pm
Cobbetts didn't go under because of DWF though. DWF weren't responsible for Cobbetts failing finances. If the deal wasn't right for DWF in 2012 they were entirely within their rights to pull out.
The fact is that with DWF coming in and buying Cobbetts now they ARE saving people's jobs. Well done to them!
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:21 pm
This seems to have all been set up a year ago when they called off the merger due to "difficult trading conditions" or what ever it was.....i bet that they worked out it was in both parties interests to do it as a pre-pack because Cobbetts had too much baggage
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:21 pm
How unwise of DWF.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:22 pm
The Legal Detective - straight out of the Inspector Clouseau school of legal detection. A few people want to read their copies of "Insolvency Law for Dummies" before posting.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:22 pm
For all those who are suggesting that this is good for the staff have forgotten that the support functions are unlikely to be fully integrated into offices where that function is more or less fully occupied. So whilst senior staff and profitable teams will be welcomed with open arms, spare a thought for those who are surplus to requirement.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:22 pm
What goes around comes around. Redundancies probable, no-one's recession-proof.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:23 pm
Andrew LEGENDLAD more like.
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:23 pm
What will this mean for (former) prospective trainees of Cobbetts?
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Anonymous | 4-Feb-2013 6:23 pm
I remember a (senior) Cobbetts partner curiously enquiring (at the time they 'equitised' their whole partnership) whether the CA2006 directors' duties to act in the best interests of a company 'for its members as a whole' would apply to the management of an LLP. Naively, I thought it was a strange question to ask, at the time...
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