A&O and Weil act on Thomson Reuters' acquisition of Complinet

Weil corporate partner Jonathan Wood acted for Complinet shareholders on the sale, a group that included private equity firm Canter Equity Partners.

A&O corporate partner Richard Evans advised Thomson Reuters on the sale, while the Complinet management team turned to Hammonds corporate partner Mark Robson.

Canter was set up as an independent house to take over assets previously owned by Devonshire, the private equity arm of asset management firm Fidelity. Wood also acted on Devonshire’s original acquisition of a minority stake in Complinet in 2008.

The private equity house bought around 30-35 per cent of Complinet shares for a reported £18.5m. Although details of the new transaction have been kept under wraps, those close to the deal say investors made a sizeable return.

“They did exceptionally well,” confirmed Wood. “This was a strategic acquisition for Thomson Reuters and Canter felt it was a good deal to do. It was an attractive offer so they went with it.”

Canter is understood to be in the process of raising new funds while also managing former Fidelity assets, and Wood expects his firm’s relationship with the house to stay healthy despite the change of ownership.

He added: “The team that’s there are the people we acted for with Fidelity and we built a good relationship [with them] so we expect that to continue going forward.”