Joint ventures

Joint ventures are flexible structures for sharing risk and increasing value. A corporate structure is frequently used, for example a single purpose vehicle with an integral shareholders agreement.

At Lawrence Graham, we advise on a wide range of joint venture projects utilising a variety of corporate and contractual both structures. Recently, we have worked with our clients in Belgium, Luxembourg, India, North America and the UK on a number of joint venture structures and agreements.

The use of limited partnerships has been growing and we advise those raising funds in this way, as well as providing advice on more traditional partnership structures.

We also have considerable expertise in public-private sector partnerships for service delivery, where a collaborative structure is adopted in order to achieve best value in service delivery.

Our Commerce and Technology group handles collaborative agreements for projects such as technology R&D, including those with government funding, in both the private sector and in higher education.

Joint ventures

Bidding and pre-bidding agreements
Collaboration agreements
Consortium agreements
Cross-border arrangements
EU framework programme funding
Joint venture agreements
Partnering agreements
Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) structures
Advice to JV board members
Tax aspects

Joint ventures

We advised Clipper Windpower on its strategic alliance with BP Alternative Energy for the exploitation of Clipper's wind turbine technology through a long-term turbine supply agreement and the joint development of five wind energy projects in the USA, with a deal value of around US$4 billion. This was at the time the largest strategic alliance then seen in the UK renewable energy market.

We acted for Micromass UK, a subsidiary of Waters Corporation, when it donated a prototype mass spectrometer unit to a joint research consortium with Nottingham Trent University, Glaxosmithkline, Astrazeneca and The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Several aspects of the development and application of these spectrometry techniques are currently under investigation including the mass spectrometry of biomolecules. Applications are in the areas of pharmaceutical and biomedical science, particularly related to proteomics, cancer diagnosis and cancer immunology.

We advised Queen Mary Innovation on its major strategic IP funding collaborative venture with IP Group. The partnering agreement with IP Group is a major strategic collaborative venture for the identification and exploitation of intellectual property assets developed at Queen Mary University of London. IP Group Plc is a Stock Exchange listed intellectual property commercialisation company that specialises in commercialising university technology. Under the 25 year partnering agreement, the IP Group will receive a 13.3% equity stake in each spin-out company from Queen Mary at the time that the spin-out company is established prior to investment. IP Group will work on licensing opportunities across Queen Mary and will receive 10% of any income which Queen Mary receives from licensing during the lifetime of the partnership.

Joint ventures

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Structuring and managing joint ventures Advice on how to structure and manage joint ventures 21 Feb 2012 DOWNLOAD PDF

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Joint ventures

"Lawrence Graham is highly commended. I have worked with many teams of lawyers over 30 years both in business and Government and I have no higher respect for the dedication and professionalism than I hold for the LG team with whom we have been working." – Lord Moynihan

"This is an important partnership for Queen Mary as it will not only provide critical early stage seed capital for our spin-out companies but also follow-on funding from the IP Venture Fund. This injection of revenue and expertise from the IP Group will accelerate commercialisation and help us to realise the capital value within Queen Mary’s world-class research base." – Caroline Quest, Managing Director, Queen Mary Innovation