The long-dormant buyout market might finally be emerging from its slumber as a trio of U.K. companies were scooped up by British private equity firms.
One of the sales involved CPA Global, a leading legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm, to London-based mezzanine lender Intermediate Capital Group (ICG). According to the Financial Times, ICG is paying $709 million to seal a management buyout of CPA, which is owned by 300 lawyers and patent officers. The deal is being financed with $363 million in debt from a syndicate of banks, and will result in ICG owning close to half of CPA.
David Raff, head of the U.K. corporate group at DLA Piper in London, advised CPA on the acquisition along with corporate partner Kiran Sharma. It’s the second PE deal this week for DLA–the firm also advised U.K. retailer Pets at Home on its $1.5 billion acquisition by buyout firm KKR.
Offshore firm Ogier also advised CPA, which was founded on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1969 and now employs more than 1,200 people across 16 offices in eight countries. Corporate partner Raulin Amy and litigation partner Matthew Thompson led a team from Ogier advising CPA.
There’s no word yet on who represented ICG on the deal. In the past, London-based ICG has turned to British firms Ashurst and Travers Smith for deal work. The two firms advised ICG on its $1.6 billion sale of pharmaceutical support company Marken to Apax Partners in December–the largest private equity buyout in the U.K. last year.
CPA has been on the buyout block for the past several months, amidst reports that some of the company’s founding shareholders were reaching retirement age and wanted to cash out of the business.
Last year it was reported that Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto had saved $1 million in monthly legal fees by turning to CPA for LPO services. CPA lawyers in New Delhi cost roughly $250 per day, far less than even their most junior counterparts at firms in the U.S. or U.K. Rio Tinto has announced plans to trim its $100 million annual legal budget by 20 percent through the use of LPO providers like CPA.
Large international firms like Baker & McKenzie and Linklaters also have working relationships with CPA, and Patton Boggs recently selected the firm to handle its IP docketing services. Last month CPA also announced it was getting into the M&A advisory business by launching a regulatory enforcement and investigations practice. Montgomery Kosma, a former antitrust associate at Jones Day and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is coheading the group.
A CPA spokesman says the sale to ICG will likely be completed on Friday after the Royal Court of Jersey approves the transaction. Since the firm is incorporated in the Channel Islands, a dependency of the U.K., local courts have final say on the deal.
Source:http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2010/01/cpasale.html
