News

Dillon Eustace are the delighted to have advised on two of the winning deals in the Finance Dublin Deals of the Year Awards 2021.

The winning deals are as follows:

1. Deal of the Year in the Mergers & Acquisitions: Acquisition Mid Market: category: the sale of Global Diagnostics Ireland (GDI) by Centric to Medica Group plc; and

2. Deal of the Year in the Loans & Financing & Private Equity: SME Financing category: the Allied Irish Banks, plc. acquisition financing and management buy-in in respect of CRS Rent A Fridge.

Winning deal - Mergers & Acquisitions: Acquisition, Mid Market: Sale of GDI

Dillon Eustace along with Investec advised Centric Health on its disposal of Global Diagnostics Ireland Ltd, incorporating Global Retinopathy Services Ltd (Global Vision), to UK company Medica Group plc. Global Diagnostics is an award-winning radiology services provider in Ireland and the country’s market leader for teleradiology services, delivering managed service solutions to public and private hospitals and direct to patient services. Global Vision is a digital photography and grading services provider offering diabetic retinopathy screening services on behalf of the HSE.

The acquirer, Medica, is the UK market leader in the provision of teleradiology services, providing outsourced interpretation and reporting of MRI, CT and plain film images. Global Diagnostics will benefit from the expertise of the UK’s leading teleradiology provider.

The Centric Health team was advised by Dillon Eustace’s team led by Catherine Hicks of the Corporate and M&A team assisted by Lorcan Tiernan, partner and head of Corporate and M&A, Conor Keaveny, partner, Banking and Capital Markets with support from David Lawless, head of Tax.

Commenting on the GDI deal, Lorcan Tiernan, head of Corporate and M&A, Dillon Eustace said: ‘We are delighted to have advised on the sale of GDI on behalf of Centric Health and wish the team every success as the market evolves. This deal involved cross departmental input from our Corporate and M&A, Banking and Tax teams as well as a close working relationship with the Investec team to deliver a successful outcome for our client. We wish Medica every success in their future development of the business.”

Winning deal - Loans & Financing & Private Equity: SME Financing: CRS Rent A Fridge

Dillon Eustace advised AIB on the financing of the acquisition of the Irish owned CRS Rent A Fridge group and management buy-in, to win in the Loans & Financing & Private Equity: SME Financing category. The hybrid funding model involved private equity investment in the business and the provision by AIB of term debt, revolving credit and Capex facilities to support investment in the fast growing business as well as facilitating future acquisitions.

This gives the Meath-based provider of modular temperature-controlled storage solutions to the food and pharma sectors the backing it needs to execute on its growth plans.

The Dillon Eustace team on this transaction was led by John-Hugh Colleran, and Conor Keaveny, partners in the Banking and Capital Markets team, with support from Philip Lea, partner in the Corporate and M&A team, and Martin Colman, partner in the Real Estate team.

Mark Thorne, head of Banking and Capital Markets, Dillon Eustace said “We at Dillon Eustace are delighted to have worked with AIB on this complex and award winning deal led by partners John-Hugh Colleran and Conor Keaveny with support from our Corporate and Real Estate teams. It is a really good example of our multidisciplinary support for AIB and our expanding range of banking clients.”

Donnacha O’Connor managing partner of Dillon Eustace commented “We are delighted for our clients in the CRS Rent A Fridge and Global Diagnostics Ireland transactions that we were able to support them in delivering winning outcomes and we also welcome the recognition our teams in banking, corporate, real estate and tax have achieved in delivering on these winning deals.”