Mills & Reeve advises on over £800m worth of deals in 2025
The firm’s corporate teams in Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford acted on 54 significant deals in the last 12 months with a combined deal value of £802 million.
Deal activity spanned various sectors, including food and agriculture, healthcare, technology, energy, life sciences and insurance.
Nearly a third of M & A deals (32 per cent) were cross-jurisdictional, including Europe and the United States, with more than half (59 per cent) venture capital-related and more than one-fifth (22 per cent) involving private equity.
Significant regional deals include advising global private equity investor Archimed on its successful exit of Deallus, a market-leading intelligence solutions provider focused on the international life sciences sector. The company was bought by data and analytics company GlobalData Plc.
From an investment perspective, Mills & Reeve acted for luxury automotive brand Gordon Murray Automotive and its shareholders on a landmark $120m investment from Halo Cars Group, driving forward its ambitious growth strategy.
The VC team also advised on the oversubscribed £50m Series B financing for NRG Therapeutics – an innovative neuroscience company targeting a novel mechanism to address mitochondrial dysfunction, developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Motor Neurone Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
The financing was led by SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), a specialist venture fund dedicated to investing in companies developing or enabling novel therapeutics for dementia, and included British Business Bank, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund and Criteria Bio Ventures alongside existing investors Omega Funds and Brandon Capital.
Jonathan Greenwood, corporate partner at Mills & Reeve in Cambridge, said: “Despite the global and economic uncertainty that challenged dealmakers throughout 2025, we saw a good number of M & A, PE and VC transactions being completed, demonstrating the continued attractiveness – and resilience – of the region.
“As we move into 2026, we expect activity to increase as businesses and investors take advantage of the comparatively stable financial landscape to realise strategic growth and exit opportunities.”
Corporate partner Natalie Wade added: “We have a robust regional economy, with ambitious and high potential businesses at the heart of its success. Strategic growth is a clear priority from both a political and business perspective, with significant investment being committed to the region.
“By creating the right environment for future growth, the region will continue to attract investment from both domestic and international investors looking to scale at pace through M & A, PE and VC investment.”
The corporate team specialises in mergers, acquisitions and disposals, private equity, investment funds, venture capital and equity investments, capital markets, business startups and spin-outs. Mills & Reeve’s entrepreneurial clients benefit from the firm’s strengths across private wealth, corporate and commercial.