David advises clients across a number of sectors on corporate transactional work, predominantly focusing on mergers & acquisitions and investments. David is particularly familiar working with private equity firms and with managers of businesses looking to secure private equity investment. He also deals with MBOs, group reorganisations and shareholder arrangements.
David has a keen interest in working with companies in the Energy industry and before joining Womble Bond Dickinson, David spent time in-house with a large publicly listed energy company.
David is dual-qualified in Scotland and England & Wales and is also part of our Transatlantic Lawyer Network, frequently working on cross border transactions alongside colleagues within Womble Bond Dickinson (US).
David is recognised as a Rising Star by The Legal 500 publication, and was shortlisted by the Insider NE Dealmaker Awards for "Corporate Lawyer of the Year" in 2023 and "Emerging Dealmaker" in 2022 and 2023.
Experience
Examples of experience include advising:
- The management team at UK Land Estates on the majority investment by one of the world's largest property investors
- The owners of global Energy data analytics provider EnAppSys on the sale of the business to Montel AS (backed by the Riverside Company)
- Bourne Leisure Limited, a Blackstone portfolio company, on its acquisition of two prominent hotel and golf businesses
- The owners of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Arcinova on the sale of the business to Quotient Sciences (backed by Permira)
- Perwyn on its lead investment in HungryPanda, the leading global Asian food delivery platform
- Lloyds Development Capital on a number of investments, including:
- Its major investment in Aspire Technology Solutions, an award-winning managed service provider and internet service provider
- Its significant minority investment in Connect Health – the UK’s largest independent provider of integrated community MSK (musculoskeletal) services (shortlisted for Deal of the Year above £10m in 2020)
- Its investment in iamproperty, a business specialising in technology-led software, platforms and services that support property professionals
- The owners of Engineering firm Reece Group's two central defence firms on the acquisition by global defence giant, Rafael
- Grainger Plc on its £57m acquisition of the Forge development
- Carpetright and its sister company Nestware on various matters including the acquisition of Carpet and Flooring Trading Limited from the management team and Endless LLP (winner of Insider Media Limited's deal of the month award)
- Nimbus on its majority investment in Hawthorn Timber Limited
- Gordon Brown Law Firm on the sale of its property, probate and conveyancing business to Simplify, the UK's largest conveyancing and property services group
- AIM listed Vertu Motors plc on its acquisition of various BMW and MINI businesses
- EQT Infrastructure on the sale of Tampnet UK and Central North Sea Fibre Telecommunications Company as part of the wider sale of the global Tampnet Group, the owner and operator of the world's largest offshore communication infrastructure network
- Mpac Group Plc on its acquisition of Lambert Automation Limited, a provider of technology leading automation solutions.
"David Ridley was excellent from start to finish. Sound, sensible, pragmatic commercial advice. The transaction was emotional, but was handled sensitively with a personal touch which was hugely appreciated."
The Legal 500, 2021
"It’s been a pleasure to work with the Womble Bond Dickinson teams and in particular Robert, James and David with their extensive private equity experience. They were approachable and made their advice easy to understand throughout - this combined with their expertise gave us lots of confidence."
Johnathan Bulmer, Managing Director at Cleveland Containers
