The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has exclusively brokered the deal for Sovereign Capital to acquire AIM listed IP Services provider Murgitroyd in a £65m deal, which takes the company back into private ownership.

Sovereign is backing the management team led by Edward Murgitroyd, CEO, to support the continued development of the Group and deliver greater global presence through a strategy of buy and build. Initially introducing the opportunity to Sovereign, the team brokered the deal on behalf of Sovereign, advising the team through their bid for takeover, supporting on the negotiation of the buy price, structuring and project managing the transaction, completing the financial modelling and working alongside the legal advisers and listed market advisers on the legal complexities of an AIM takeover back to private ownership.

In addition, the Debt Advisory team were appointed by Sovereign to assist with a debt raise to help fund the acquisition and provide working capital facilities. The debt team presented the opportunity to a carefully selected shortlist of potential lenders and received multiple offers, prior to Sovereign selecting BlackRock, who provided acquisition debt in support of the deal together with follow-on acquisition facilities. As well as backing Murgitroyd to develop its global presence through buy and build, Sovereign will also be supporting the business to further develop its tech-enabled platform and support service offerings. Murgitroyd is a leading European provider of IP services. The Group delivers patent and trade mark legal advice together with a breadth of IP support services to meet the IP needs of its international client base.

Established in 1975 and headquartered in Glasgow, Murgitroyd operates from a network of offices in countries including the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Finland and Central America, and employs a team of over 300. The business offers a rare proposition in the IP market by providing an integrated attorney led offering and associated IP support services capability.

“Murgitroyd is a very successful business, providing the highest quality of services to its clients and operating in a global market where the levels of outsourcing for both corporates and SMEs continues to increase alongside the complexity of multi-jurisdictional IP activities. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the management team to build upon the Group’s service offering and geographic reach. We are thankful to Mark and the team for creating this opportunity and introducing it to us. Having set up the opportunity, the lead advisory team did a fantastic job supporting us through the negotiations and then project managing the deal to completion. In addition, we were grateful to once again have the support of the Debt Advisory team, who presented the opportunity to potential lenders and secured an excellent debt package through BlackRock. The benefit of utilising both lead and debt advisory services made for seamless timing at all key stages of the transaction process.” Jonathan Thorne, Director, Sovereign Capital Partners.

“I am very proud of how the Group has grown both organically and through strategic acquisition since my father established the business from a single office in Glasgow over 40 years ago. We have continued to thrive over the years and today Murgitroyd is a global business providing clients with an attractive combination of complex attorney work together with a highly efficient IP support services offering. We are very excited about the opportunity to further develop the Group with Sovereign’s investment and partnership.” Edward Murgitroyd, CEO, Murgitroyd Group PLC.