Thackray Williams advises on sale of Eclipse Presentations Limited to Encore

Founded more than three decades ago, Eclipse is a leader in its field with a global offering.  Their team of over 100 professionals provide a full suite of event production services including creative services, event design & build, technical production and overall event management.  Encore is a global event production company based in the US.

Robin Purslow, Chief Executive Officer and shareholder of Eclipse comments: “Embarking on the journey to sell my company started with needing the right team around me, and my shareholders, for guidance, advice, experience and most of all the gut feeling of being my kind if people…step forward the team at Thackray Williams led by Nick Gabay and Will King. Nick and Will handled our legal needs with professionalism, poise and the tenacity needed to achieve a lifetime of work’s dream conclusion to see the successful acquisition of Eclipse by Encore where I truly believe both brands will go on to do great things.”

Robin added: “I personally would like to thank you both for doing what you do, but with such a soft guiding touch. The subtle guidance and balancing of advising Claire and I, Jamie and Danielle were very skilfully accomplished.” 

Nick Gabay, Partner, and Will King, Associate Solicitor, in the Corporate Commercial department at Thackray Williams led the transaction.  They were supported by Megan O’Hara, Partner, and trainee Solicitor Jack Chapman, in the Employment department.

Will commented: "It was a pleasure working with Robin, Claire, Jamie, and Danielle from Eclipse on this deal.  We were able to demonstrate the strength and expertise of our Corporate M&A offering as well as the breadth of our wider commercial group by supporting the sellers with all legal aspects of the transaction through to a successful completion. We overcame the challenges of the international aspects of the transaction – the buyer is headquartered in the US and their legal team was being led by the Singapore office, so the team had to find a common ground to overcome the different approaches taken in the US and English law jurisdictions – even though the transaction was governed by English law. We wish the team at Eclipse continued success as it continues to flourish with the additional resources that Encore will provide to its highly regarded business.”

Nick added: “I have worked with Eclipse since Robin took the reins of the company roughly 10 years ago, and I have seen him take the company from strength to strength, despite the various challenges thrown his way during his tenure at the helm.  It was a delight to see his hard work rewarded with this deal, and wish him, and the rest of the team at Eclipse and Encore, all the best for the future.”