Wilson Solicitors

Jun 5, 2023

5 Jun 2023 National Deals Laurence Kilgannon Two professional services firms have been instrumental in the sale of an online ships valuation and market intelligence provider to a global maritime freight management group. Law firm Wilsons Solicitors and accountancy firm Azets were instructed by VesselsValue to advise on its sale to Veson Nautical. Founded in 2011, VesselsValue provides an online platform for ship valuations, market analysis and insights utilising a dataset of more than 81,500 vessels. Wilsons Solicitors and Azets advised VesselsValue on the sale. The multi-disciplinary team at Wilsons Solicitors was led by James Johnson, partner, and head of corporate, with support from specialists from across the firm's Corporate, Employment and Corporate Tax teams. Azets' team included Heather Williams, tax partner, based in Southampton, and Tina Harris, director of tax, and Mike Middleton, tax partner, both based in Portsmouth, with support from the Solent Corporate Finance team led by Rob Holmes, partner. VesselsValue employs 230 people, has 2,500 users and works with more than 600 global companies including major banks, leasing companies, shipowners, investment funds, hedge funds, lawyers, advisers and government regulators. Wilsons Solicitors worked alongside Azets on the sale and also advised on the demerger of AviationValues, the aviation valuation part of the VesselsValue business, which has been retained by the AviationValues management team. James Johnson, of Wilsons Solicitors LLP, said: "We are very proud to have worked alongside the team at VesselsValue. Larger transactions of this nature always bring challenges and it is fundamental to our role to guide our clients and overcome the obstacles that inevitably come up. "Getting the deal done on the timeline, given all of its complexities, was potentially difficult but, thanks to the input of everyone involved, was one that was achieved on time and in a very collaborative spirit. "We wish everyone at AviationValues and at VesselsValue well for the future and look forward to working with the team as they continue to build AviationValues’ offering." Heather Williams, of Azets, added: "This was a great opportunity to work with the team at Wilsons Solicitors LLP on this exceptional project. "This was a real team effort by Azets and included transaction support, restructuring options, review of UK tax implications, business and company valuations, VAT advice, review of SPA and tax warranties, review of operation of EMI scheme, technical support and corporate finance support. "It was a technically complex operation, especially with regard to matching UK and US taxes, the separation of businesses and rollover arrangements. "We feel it demonstrates that we can advise on a transaction of this scale and complexity and that leading professional services firms are comfortable referring this type of work to us."