Darren specialises in both advisory and transactional work ranging from seed capital investments to advising buyer/sellers on M&A transactions.
He provides advice on corporate issues including sales and acquisitions of companies, equity investments, the restructuring of groups of companies and the provision of general corporate law advice to shareholders and directors.
Darren provides advice to clients across a number of sectors including transport and logistics, advertising, events management and property with a particular focus on clients in the TMT sector.
His recent experience includes acting for the management team and shareholders of a leading hyperscale data center provider in Europe on the sale of the company and its subsidiaries to a NASDAQ listed data center provider, advising an AIM listed company on its acquisition of a geospatial software solutions provider in France and acting for a private limited company of its acquisition of a boutique hotel.
Landmarks
In the last 18 months Darren has acted on some of the most significant NI transactions including advising:
- Version 1 on its bolt on acquisition of Northern Ireland based digital services specialist, Neueda
- Hospital Services Limited on its £3.5m private equity investment made by Northern Irish Foresight Group
- Rockpool Investments and RCL Partners backed EA-RS Group on its acquisition of Crane Communications, a fire and security audiovisual equipment supplier based in Northern Ireland
- Hospital Services Limited on its acquisition of MDI Medical Limited
- the founder sellers of Blue Clarity Design Services Limited on their sale to private equity backed WHP Telecoms Limited
- advising Omni Pet Limited on its pre-seed fundraise of c.£1m
- the management team on its management buy-out of the private equity that they had previously sold to for c.£2m
- the shareholders on their sale of a group of companies that owned and managed 17 Domino’s franchises;
- the Purchaser in relation to all UK aspects of its world wide acquisition of one of the world’s largest end-to-end intellectual property solutions providers
- the sellers on their disposal of a family-owned business in the transport industry to its management team buy-out for consideration in excess of £8m
- a Northern Irish based civil engineering firm on its joint venture acquisition with the management team (management buy-in) of a UK electrical, mechanical and civil engineering installation provider
- the management team on its buy-out of a prominent Belfast based architects firm
- TH Travel Ltd in relation to its EIS investment round with Zeal Ventures acting as lead investor
- the shareholders in relation to the sale of the business and assets of a private nursing home to another Northern Irish family-owned nursing home provider, inclusive of a split exchange and completion due to regulatory consent being required
- a Middle East headquartered investment fund on its £1.8m series B investment into Thimble also known as VeriFLY
- the management team on its management buyout of PRL In-market Solutions (NI), returning the business into the hands of one of the earlier owners.
What they say
“Darren Marley is exceptional, he goes beyond law and thinks commercially – advising the businesses we invest in on what matters and what doesn’t…there are few lawyers who can give quality advice with a very strong commercial focus on what really matters”
“Darren Marley – pragmatic and tenacious to deliver transactions in tight timeframes”
“Darren Marley is very diligent and responsive. He focuses in heavily on the detail and is a great complement to Chris”
“He is super accessible, which is great – he’s like an extension of the team in that respect. He has a hawk-eye for detail and gets everything done…he has done a really good job of relationship-building”
“Darren Marley is very professional and very creative in solving complex legal matters in a sensitive way. He is excellent and very personable – he can talk around complex legal matters in a good way”
Chambers and Partners / Legal 500
