The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised the shareholders of Sprout IT, a specialist cloud and managed IT provider to the legal sector, on the disposal of the company to CTS, a portfolio company of lower mid-market investor Tenzing.

Based in the heart of London’s legal district, and with 24/7 support operations in New Zealand, Sprout IT is a specialist in providing critical services and strategic advice to the legal industry. Founded in 2006, Sprout IT was launched by Danny Killeen and Matt Torrens with the aim of providing a customer centric proposition delivering high service levels to the Legal sector.

Also founded in 2006, CTS has been working with Tenzing since 2018, when they backed the senior management team in an MBO led by founder, Nigel Wright. CTS has a history of strong, organic growth and following two recent acquisitions, including Sprout IT, they are now the leading cloud and managed IT provider to the UK and Irish legal sectors. The combined group will operate under the CTS brand and the experienced management team will be staying with the business to support future growth and integration.

Danny Killeen, Co-Founder, Sprout IT, “I am very proud to have found the right home for our staff and clients. Together with Nigel, Ed and the Sprout and CTS leadership teams, we’re excited about building our future as the leading Legal Sector Cloud and Managed Service Provider.”

Guy Gillon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Tenzing, commented: “We’re delighted to have supported the CTS team on this acquisition and would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new colleagues from Sprout IT. CTS is already a high-growth, market leader, and we expect this acquisition to accelerate the firm’s trajectory as it continues to deliver highly specialised services to its legal sector clients.”

Nigel Wright, CEO of CTS, commented: “We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues from Sprout IT to the CTS family. This acquisition underlines our commitment to the sector and to our mission to become a legal sector powerhouse. What drives us is a relentless focus on the legal sector, enabling our team to deliver a level of expertise and understanding that our competitors cannot match, from which clients derive clear, transformative value. We have lots of exciting services designed for the legal sector in the pipeline, which we hope to bring to market in 2021, together with plans to further invest in our business to the benefit of our clients”.

“The team provided tremendous support from beginning to end. Ever available and with good humour, I would not hesitate in recommending them as a Corporate Finance partner.” Matt Torrens, Co-Founder, Sprout IT.

“CTS and Sprout IT together are a clear market leader in the provision of technology to the legal sector which made CTS an obvious partner when we started advising the Sprout IT shareholders. The transaction was completed remotely throughout; although two managed service providers were always good participants for a remote only process!” Clive Hatchard, Corporate Finance.

“It was a pleasure working with Danny, Matt and Angela and we are delighted to have delivered this transaction for them. They have built a highly successful business, and I’m certain they will continue this success being part of the CTS group. Sprout IT is a high growth business that has been resilient to COVID-19 and another example of a great technology deal completing during the pandemic.” James Mines.