Shaw Gibbs has advised on the sale of Swindon-based technology company, OATS, to Haynes Publishing Group plc for £2.4m in cash. Shaw Gibbs’ Corporate Finance team supported OATS’ shareholders throughout the process, offering advice on all aspects of the transaction, including commercial issue resolution and supporting the management with complex cross-border tax advice.

Vfdnet, led by James Shand, supported the transaction team by working effectively and responsively to meet the needs of the buyers during the due diligence process. There were no adjustments to the purchase price from the due diligence.

Based in Somerset, Haynes is the world’s largest producer of automotive servicing and repair information manuals. HaynesPro is the market leader for online automotive technical data, serving over 40,000 users in Europe.

Founded in 1984, OATS is a technology company servicing the global lubricant industry. The company now provides the lubricant recommendation systems and services for the most complex oil companies across the globe. The acquisition of OATS enables Haynes Pro to provide their customers with comprehensive information on lubricants and will help facilitate the future growth of services to OATS’ customers.

Sebastian Crawshaw, Chairman of OATS commented on the transaction saying, “We have worked with Shaw Gibbs for many years for Audit and Tax aspects of the business. This, however, was the first experience of the Corporate Finance activity and the co-operation was excellent. Working with Clifford Brown and Peter O’Connell, we were able to achieve the objectives that we had set. The Sale process worked smoothly with excellent co-ordination. The benefits of having both the Audit history and on-the-spot tax advice was extremely helpful, saving time and energy at key moments. Thanks to all the team.”

If you are considering a corporate transaction, please contact Shaw Gibbs Corporate Finance on 01865 292 200 or via email.