Contributors
Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has advised investment firm Mercia Asset Management (Mercia) on its £750K investment in North East retail business, The Handbag Clinic.
The Handbag Clinic is a leading luxury handbag restoration and pre-owned resale retailer. The business has stores across the UK, Europe and the Middle East and handles over £40m worth of handbags. The investment from Mercia will support The Handbag Clinic's expansion plans.
The WBD team advising Mercia was led by associate Oliver Rickett who provided corporate advice on the transaction. The firm has a longstanding relationship with Mercia having previously acted on a range of its local investments including into IBEX Innovations, to support a pioneering breast cancer detection technology, Gateshead start-up Equiwatt, cell tech business Newcells Biotech, and alcoholic tea brand Noveltea.
Oliver Rickett commented:
"It has been a pleasure working with the Mercia team once again on this latest investment into yet another very promising North East business. I am really looking forward to seeing Handbag Clinic's upward trajectory, following this latest fundraising which comes soon after a successful crowdfunding round on Crowdcube. Mercia's investment will provide further support and help Handbag Clinic scale up, guiding them through their next stage of growth."
Jan Oosthuizen, Investment Manager at Mercia Asset Management, added:
"We're very grateful to Oli and the WBD team for their hard work, expertise and diligent advice. It is great to work with such an experienced and knowledgeable team."
WBD's corporate team advises clients across a number of sectors, on a broad range of corporate transactions, particularly M&A, IPOs, joint ventures, private equity investments as well as growth and development capital fundraisings.
