The growth of the middle class in BRIC economies and the rise of discretionary spending levels in developed economies means that the leisure sector is growing on a global basis and is becoming increasingly internationalised.
 
Established leisure concepts in the hotel, restaurant, cinema, gambling and sport sectors are racing to grow revenues in new markets and are seeking to protect existing market share via growth and acquisition/development deals.

This leads to a very exciting and growth orientated sector which is serviced by Olswang's leading leisure sector team who provide domestic and international support to some of the world's leading and fastest growing leisure businesses and concepts as they seek to attract their share of the world's discretionary spend.

The practice acts for key stakeholders in the leisure space, be they the owners, operators, investors, asset managers, financiers, the distressed investment community or leisure management.

Clients talk about our ability to connect them with global players, to bring big ticket opportunities to the table, to suggest ways to unlock growth and value on their balance sheets and to help grow their bottom lines both domestically and abroad.

We are also praised for being calm under fire, confident and beautifully connected in such a way that we can help them change their businesses.

Given the universality attached to the leisure sector, we draw our client base from across the globe and our clients are transacting business in the UK, across Europe, in India, the Middle East, the Far East as well as Australia.

Our full service leisure offering provides a seamless service to up and coming as well as global and sophisticated leisure businesses.  Our team tackles corporate, finance, commercial and regulatory, construction, development, real estate, IP, tax, litigation, franchise or employment related issues faced by leisure businesses.

Hotels

American Leisure Group
Olswang advised American Leisure Group on its £75 million fundraising and admission to AIM, enabling it to develop various leisure resorts in the USA.

Dawnay Shore Hotels plc
Olswang advised Dawnay Shore Hotels plc on the:

• £215 million acquisition of the 13 four and five star hotels including the Marine Hotel in Troon, Shrigley Hall and the Imperial Hotel in Brighton Paramount;
• £41 million acquisition of three famous English country house hotels, The Lygon Arms, Billesley Manor and Combe Grove Manor Hotel and Country Club;
• £15.2 million acquisition of the Walton Hall Hotel in Warwickshire;
• £57 million debt financing of its acquisition of three hotels for Hanover International, a chain of individually styled hotels, conference and training centres in England and Wales located in Basingstoke, Hinckley and Daventry; and
• £560 million lease back transaction of the 20 hotel portfolio Paramount Hotels to international hotel operator Barcelo.

D&D London
Olswang advised D&D London Limited on its plans to develop and operate an 80-bedroom luxury boutique hotel in the City of London.

Docklands
Olswang advised Capital & Provident Group in connection with the development of the new Hilton Hotel in Docklands which is under construction.

Heron Property Corporation
Olswang advised Heron Property Corporation on the acquisition and lease back of a £55 million portfolio of hotels from the Accor Group.

JJW Limited
Olswang advised JJW Limited, a subsidiary of MBI International, on the acquisition of a portfolio of six hotels known as the Eton Collection.

Minerva
Olswang advised Minerva Plc, one of the UK's leading property investment and development companies, in its joint venture with Northacre Plc.

Thistle Lancaster Gate Hotel in Bayswater
Olswang advised Minerva Group on the sale of The Criterion in Piccadilly Circus, to a London property investor, Golfrate.

Park Hotels Group
Olswang advised Park Hotels for a number of years, including a restructuring of the group.

Panmure Gordon
Olswang advised Panmure Gordon & Co (UK) Limited on its role as sponsor, broker, underwriter and financial adviser in connection with the issue of 91,666,667 New Units by main-market listed MWB Group Holdings PLC ("MWB") which raised in aggregate £27.5million. MWB owns hotel groups Malmaison and Hotel du Vin.

Thistle Hotels
Olswang advised this major hotel chain in the outsourcing of its data centre to Equant, part of the Orange Group.

Thornfield Properties
Olswang advised the development company, Thornfield Properties Plc ("Thornfield") on the completion of its main building contract with Laing O'Rourke for the £350 million redevelopment of Bury Town Centre in Greater Manchester.

The Bury Town Centre development project, which will be branded "The Rock", will see 1.6 million sq ft of land transformed into retail, leisure, restaurants, residential accommodation and a new medical centre. The retail will be anchored by two large department stores for Debenhams and Marks & Spencer, and the new leisure quarter will include a 10-screen Vue cinema, a 25-lane AMF 10 pin bowling unit, and eight family themed restaurants.

Travelodge Hotels Limited
Olswang acted in relation to the development of two separate sites for letting to Travelodge Hotels Limited.

Whitbread
Olswang completed an important network outsourcing deal for Whitbread, the UK's leading leisure group. The multi-million pound project with Fujitsu is for the provision of a complete range of fixed voice and data network services across all of Whitbread's businesses, including David Lloyd Leisure, Costa Coffee, Marriott and Travel Inn hotels, and Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants.

Bars

Ignite Bars Limited
Olswang advised Ignite Bars Limited, the owners of Boujis in relation to various licence and management agreements including the management agreement for the roof top nightclub of the W hotel in Barcelona and the management of the Wyld bar in the W hotel in London.

Buddha bar
Olswang advised Simon Halabi on the licence development and management agreement for the Buddha bar in London.

Ministry of Sound
Olswang provides various corporate and IP services for Ministry of Sound and Hed Kandi including the roll-out of the Hed Kandi brand abroad.

Pub Groups

Graphite Capital Management
Olswang advised Graphite Capital Management on the acquisition of 25 nightclubs and bars in the Brighton and Hove area, including the famous Zap Club.

R20
Olswang advised the Robert Tchenguiz vehicle in relation to various lease and pub related transactions.

Sand Aire Private Equity Limited
Olswang advised Sand Aire Private Equity Limited on the £26 million management buyout of Celtic Inns Limited, a tenanted pub business with 60 pubs in the UK.

The Laurel Pub Co Limited
Olswang advised The Laurel Pub Company Limited on the acquisition and disposal of various pub premises located throughout the country including pubs trading under the Yates, Bar:[me], Slug & Lettuce and Ha Ha Bar & Grill brands.

Restaurants and Catering

Dnata
Olswang advised new client, Dubai based Dnata on its acquisition of leading UK based global in-flight catering group, the Alpha Flight Group for up to £165,000,000 from listed Italian retail giant Autogrill S.p.A.

D&D London
Olswang advised D&D London in relation to various lease and corporate matters, including its new hotel in London and its first restaurant in Leeds

Wagamamma
Olswang advised Graphite Capital in the refinancing of the Japanese noodle bar chain, Wagamama. Valuing the business at £63 million, the refinancing raised £30 million for future investment and expansion.

Hakkasan
Olswang advised Hakkasan Limited on its master franchise agreement in India in relation to Hakkasan.

Hakkasan
Olswang advised Hakksaan Limited on its acquisition of Sake No Hana from the Lebedev family and Jamie Barber

Hard Rock
Olswang advised the Seminole Tribe in Florida on its acquisition of the global Hard Rock companies for £502 million. The deal involved 16 jurisdictions including the US, Australia, UK and Puerto Rico and comprised of 124 Hard Rock cafes, 4 Hard Rock hotels, 2 Hard Rock casino-hotels, 2 Hard Rock Live! concert venues and equity stakes in three unbranded hotels.

Ignite
Olswang advised Ignite in relation to a number of its restaurant properties including Bumpkin as well as the roll out of their Bumpkin and Cocoon brands abroad.

La Tasca Group plc
Olswang advised La Tasca Group plc on their £54 million AIM IPO.

Richard Caring
Olswang advised Richard Caring on his acquisition of Signature Restaurants Ltd. The deal includes 25 Strada restaurants, two Belgo sites, three Bierodrome restaurants, The Ivy, Le Caprice, J Sheekey, Daphne's, Bam-Bou and Pasha.

Richard Caring
Olswang advised Richard Caring on the sale of the Strada restaurant chain.

Richard Caring
Olswang advised Richard Caring on the acquisition of Mark Birley Holdings Limited, a leisure company operating a number of restaurants and clubs including Annabels, Harry's Bar and the Bath + Racquets club.

Searsys
Olswang acted on the management buy-out of the contract caterers, Searsys, who operate champagne bars as well as the restaurant and members club in the Gherkin.

The Wolesley
Olswang act for the owners of the Wolesley in relation to the acquisition and joint venture arrangements and ongoing operational issues.

Clubs

Soho House
Olswang advised Richard Caring on the acquisition of a controlling stake in the Soho House private members club. Olswang have also advised Soho House on various licensing and joint venture agreements relating to the roll-out of the concept internationally including India.

Playboy Club
Olswang advised world famous bar man Salvatore Calabrese in relation to the management agreement for "Salvatore at Playboy", his signature bar at the new London Playboy Club.

Hoxton Pony
Olswang advised the promoters of the Hoxton Pony on various shareholder issues.