Leeds takeover ‘fantastic news’, say lawyers

Yorkshire Post 22/11/12

LEEDS-BASED Walker Morris, the lawyers who helped the Leeds United takeover deal go through, have labelled its conclusion as ‘a fantastic day’ for the football club.
A team of lawyers, at one point over twenty, worked painstakingly over a number of months to see the deal through.
Simon Concannon, partner at Walker Morris along with Richard Naish, who worked with their team of lawyers on the transaction, said: “It is a fantastic day for the club. It has been a well-publicised transaction that has been some time to getting to completion.
“We have a team here who have been able to stick with it for the last five months, while the negotiations have been going on, covering quite a range of different areas.
“One of the things people need to recognise is that a football club is not like any other business really. There are a lot of issues people on the outside probably do not recognise.
“Clearly, if you are looking at buying a business, you need to make sure you understand all the forces.
“Clearly, GFH are a well-regulated institution who had their own issues to contend with. Equally, Ken Bates was very concerned to ensure the people who were buying it had an understanding of what was needed to move things on.
“A lot of different lawyers were involved in the team. I had at one point we had over twenty lawyers involved and the due diligence exercise was significant and undertaken very thoroughly.
“We will have some further involvement during the transitional period. But we do not expect a significant involvement (now) until the final completion.”