ByrneWallace is delighted to announce that it has been ranked as one of Ireland's top merger and acquisitions (M&A) legal advisers in the Experian MarketIQ UK and Republic of Ireland M&A Review 2016.

The Experian MarketIQ Review is compiled using data from Experian MarketIQ, Corpfin's global M&A database and Companies House data, and the league tables are based on M&A and equity capital market transactions announced between the dates of 1 January 2016 and 30 December 2016.

Commenting on the ranking, Head of the ByrneWallace Corporate team, Feargal Brennan said, “While overall the volume of M&A transactions in the Irish market during 2016 fell short of 2015 figures, M&A activity still remained strong with 422 transactions being announced. ByrneWallace advised on a significant number of transactions during this period, across a broad range of sectors, both of a domestic and international nature.

“It is encouraging to see that once again ByrneWallace features as a leading legal adviser on corporate transactions in Ireland. While clearly there are potential headwinds in the broader market, we are very confident that our clients will continue to seek out opportunities on the transactional side in the coming year and we are already seeing elevated levels of activity early in 2017.”

During 2016, ByrneWallace advised on many of the headline M&A transactions across a broad range of industry sectors. These transactions included:

• advising the British Standards Institution (BSI) on its acquisition of Espion Limited;
• advising Minneapolis-based United Language Group, Inc. on its acquisition of Merrill Brink International;
• advising Hospital Services Limited in its acquisition of acquisition of the assets of Endosurgical (NI) Limited (Endosurgical), a wholly-owned subsidiary of hospital supplies company, Eurosurgical Limited (in liquidation;
• advising Codec-dss in its acquisition of CRM firm Vulcan.ie;
• advising Amyrt Pharmaceuticals DAC on the reverse takeover of Fastnet Equity plc.;  and
• advising Irish aviation software provider Arconics on its sale to ViaSat ,Inc.