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The value of local advisers

Tom Smyth, director of Dublin-based Broadlake, goes into detail on the reported £30m sale of skincare business Vita Liberata. He explains the value of local advisers and how the team overcame the challenges they faced.

It was the sale of Broadlake’s majority stake in Northern Ireland-headquartered skincare and self-tan brand Vita Liberata to US pharmaceutical company Crown Laboratories at the end of 2017. We had invested in Vita Liberata in 2012 to accelerate the international growth of the business, supporting its expansion into the North American market.

EY in Belfast was the financial and tax adviser to Broadlake and Vita Liberata. Tughans acted as legal adviser. The Sage Group, a Los Angeles-based investment bank that specialises in beauty M&A, was engaged to run what was a very smooth sale process.