Irwin Mitchell Advises On Complex Deal

Leading pharmaceutical wholesaler Lexon has refinanced its existing bank facilities and announced the acquisition of a chain of retail pharmacies.

The company, which has a turnover of over £200m, purchased Vittoria Healthcare, which has 11 pharmacies on the Wirral and in North Wales.

Family-run Lexon has been operated by four principal co-founders since 1995 and since then has grown significantly across its wholesale and retail operations. It now has a total workforce of more than 1,000 employees and in addition to its growing retail chain, operates distribution hubs in Redditch, Durham, Leeds and Dublin.

Pritesh Sonpal, director of Lexon UK, said: "With the support of NatWest and Lloyds Banking Group, we are extremely pleased to conclude the addition of 11 further pharmacies, taking us to a total of 67 across the UK.

"This further supports our core business that distributes pharmaceuticals to over 1800 independent pharmacies daily across the UK and Ireland."

Richard Parks, relationship director at NatWest, said: "Following the support we provided to Lexon in acquiring Vittoria Healthcare, we look forward to continuing our relationship with the management team to deliver the acquisitive growth strategy of the business."

Tom Horton, relationship director at Lloyds, said: "It’s great to be supporting Lexon with a competitive funding package that allows the management team to complete the quality acquisition of another established business in the sector."

Corporate partner Nick Dawson, led the legal team at Irwin Mitchell which advised Lexon on both the acquisition and the refinancing.