DLA Piper – optimistic with strong performance in North West Corporate practice

DLA Piper’s North West Corporate practice has had a strong few months despite ongoing uncertainties in the economy. It has been particularly busy over the last few weeks advising on three significant private equity deals:

The management buy-out of Transparity Solutions, a Microsoft Public Cloud Partner, by Beech Tree Private Equity. The significant investment by Beech Tree in the growing cloud computing business is a great opportunity in a fragmented market. Beech Tree will work with Transparity on a buy-and-build strategy to further grow the business.

DLA Piper advised Beech Tree Private Equity. The team included partners James Kerrigan and Christopher Wilson, senior associate Helen Tsang and associate Josie Millichamp..

The investment by ECI Partners in Manchester-based Mobysoft Limited, who provide predictive analytics software to the social housing sector. The partnership will support Mobysoft’s growth and enable it to expand its product suite. Mobysoft’s flagship Rentsense platform processes payment patterns for more than 1.7 million social housing properties each week. The software uses cloud-based analytics to provide recommendations and optimise workflows for about 140 providers.

DLA Piper advised the shareholders of Mobysoft Limited. The team included partner Jonathan Watkins, senior associate Jonathan Paines and associates Lindsey Peck and Charlotte Hampson.

The merger of two major North West recruitment businesses – Fircroft Group and NES Global Talent. Together, Warrington-headquartered Fircroft and Altrincham-based NES, will create a leading global technical workforce solutions organisation called NES Fircroft. The businesses had a recent combined revenue of around £1.6bn, operate in 45 countries and work in engineering and technical recruitment, supplying staff to a range of industries including oil and gas, chemicals and renewables. Equistone Partners Europe, which invested in Fircroft in 2012, remains fully invested as a minority shareholder in the expanded business.

DLA Piper advised Fircroft Group. The team included partner Andy Phillips, senior associates Jonathan Paines and Sinead Wood and associates Ben Wilson and Josie Millichamp.

James Kerrigan, head of DLA Piper’s North West Corporate practice, said: “The team has enjoyed a  strong flow of work over the past few months, and has been particularly busy over the past few weeks on private equity deals. The pipeline for the coming months is also looking healthy, with a number of transactions due to complete before Christmas. We are all unsure where the pandemic will take us but I am pleased to say we remain optimistic that the Private Equity/M&A market will be increasingly active.”