LAW firm Dickinson Dees has played a central role in the sale of a global company based in the North-East.

The sale of Anson Limited is one of the biggest deals completed in the North-East this year, and has seen the Team Valley-based company sold to US company National Oilwell Varco (NOV) for an undisclosed sum.

Anson, which employs about 200 people in the region, makes products for use in the exploration of oil and gas, exporting flowline equipment, manifolds, valves, swivel joints, hammer lug unions and wellheads all over the world.

As well as its North-East headquarters, it has operations in the US, Singapore, Russia and the Middle East.

Dickinson Dees, which has offices in Newcastle, Stockton and York in this region and another office in London, helped broker the deal, which the firm described as being particularly complex and involved liaison with law firms in six other specialisms around the world.

Nigel Williams, lead partner at Dickinson Dees in Tees Valley, said: “The completion of this sale represents one of the largest transactions done in the area so far this year and highlights that despite the economic downturn, we continue to be busy with clients giving us the opportunity to work on exciting, high value deals such as this,” he said.

“Working with experts from across our offices, the transaction involved the corporate reorganisation and subsequent sale of Anson Limited which has operations in the UK, US, Singapore, Russia and the Middle East.

“The deal effectively started last summer and involved us working with the company’s financial advisers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to market the company to interested buyers.

“We carried out due diligence and prepared a number of reports on all of the business’ operations, and these were then signed over to the buyer, in order to make the period from selection of preferred bidder to completion much quicker.

“The process was extremely complex, involving us using law firms in six other jurisdictions around the world, which meant having telephone conversations at strange times of the day and night to fit in with their office hours.

“This was a fantastic transaction to be involved in and I am proud the Dickinson Dees team was able to manage the process and achieve a successful outcome for the sellers.”