Charles Russell Speechlys advises shareholders on the sale of Rosebourne Limited to Hillier Nurseries

Charles Russell Speechlys’ Corporate team was delighted to advise the sellers, including longstanding client Puma Private Equity, in its capacity as the manager of funds invested in Rosebourne Limited, on the sale of the entire share capital of Rosebourne Limited to Hillier Nurseries.

Rosebourne owns and operates three boutique destination garden centres across the south of England and has been acquired by family-owned Hiller Garden Centres, taking the Hillier group to a total of 22 sites.

Jonathan Wyles, Investment Director at Puma Private Equity commented: “It has been great working with the Rosebourne team over several years to establish such a strong, distinct business.  We have been well advised by David and his team at Charles Russell Speechlys every step of the way, acting for Puma Private Equity on our investment in 2016, and subsequently acting on behalf of all Rosebourne shareholders on the acquisition by Hillier.”  

Charles Good, Chairman of Rosebourne commented: “We had a lot of fun creating Rosebourne’s unique business and brand from a blank sheet of paper almost 8 years ago supported by a strong shareholder base, including our majority shareholder Puma Private Equity, all of whom have been a pleasure to work with. We are delighted for all our stakeholders, especially our customers and staff that Rosebourne has found such a good long-term home. In bringing the deal to a satisfactory close we were very ably advised by our two advisors Charles Russell Speechlys and Grant Thrornton, to whom I give our thanks.”

David Coates, Partner, commented: “We are thrilled to have advised the shareholders including Puma on this recent transaction. We’ve been involved with Rosebourne since the original Puma investment in 2016 so it has been rewarding to see the growth and development and subsequent sale of the company. Following the recent investments in Deazy, Muso and the follow-on investment into Le-Col we’ve had a busy 6 months working with Puma and we look forward to supporting on many more transactions.”

The Charles Russell Speechlys team was led by Corporate Partner, David Coates, supported by Associate Laura Crotch, and Trainee Tim Edgar. Partner Mark White and Associate Ben Butterworth supported on Real Estate and Partner Helen Coward and Associate Tess Newman supported on the Tax elements of this transaction.

Grant Thornton provided corporate finance advice to the shareholders, led by partner Mike Tillson and Associate Director Angela Haygarth.