Four link up in u154m Kuwaiti acquisition

FOUR FIRMS - Wragge & Co, Pinsent Curtis, Dibb Lupton Alsop and Lovell White Durrant - have advised on the u154m acquisition of a group of Kuwaiti businesses.

The deal, backed by venture capital giant 3i, will turn the businesses into one major company called The Mettis Group, which will focus on the aerospace and orthopaedic markets.

Des Kavanagh, a former manager at Sheffield Forgemasters, is to become the chairman of Mettis. Forgemasters was drawn in to the Iraqi "supergun" scandal earlier in the decade.

The deal, one of the biggest to be completed in Birmingham, saw the acquisition of eight engineering companies from National Industries Group of Kuwait (NIGK).

Wragges partners Ian Metcalfe and Angela van den Berg acted for NIGK. Pinsents partners Nick Cockroft and Paul Harkin advised Mettis and 3i alongside in-house lawyer Peter McLintock. Dibbs partners Nick Seddon and Rod Thomas acted for the management team.

Lovells advised Credit Suisse First Boston, which provided the finance.