DLA and Travers lead as CPA Global sells stake to private equity house

1 February 2010 | By Gavriel Hollander

CPA was advised by DLA Piper corporate partners David Raff and Kiran Sharma, along with offshore firm Ogier. The Jersey-based firm was led by corporate partner Raulin Amy and litigation partner Matthew Thompson on the deal.

Travers Smith corporate chief Chris Hale advised ICG, alongside finance partner Andrew Gregson and tax partner Kathleen Russ.

Finance partner James Butters led the Clifford Chance team that acted for the banking syndicate that provided debt financing on the deal.

The deal will see ICG become the largest shareholder of the LPO company, reducing the stake of its 320 existing shareholders. The ICG stake is understood to be just below 50 per cent.

“It’s a classic change from partnership to corporate,” explained CPA chief executive Peter Sewell, who said the fresh investment would allow the outsourcing company to expand, with the possibility of it acquiring smaller rivals.

He added: “Our plan for this market is to become a market leader and that won’t be done organically so we’ll look at strategic acquisitions.”

Mining giant Rio Tinto last year outsourced legal work to a team of 15 Indian-based lawyers sourced by CPA (18 June 2009).