Parabis Group has entered into pre-pack administration, which will see the firm broken up and sold in a deal valued at £50m.
The pre-pack deal comes two weeks after it was announced that the group’s defendant law practice, Plexus Law, would be sold to its founding members Andrew McDougall and Tim Roberts.
The group’s rehabilitation and medical legal business will be sold to Premex and it is understood that its smaller units are also set to be sold. AlixPartners are advising on the pre-pack administration process, which have been handling the group’s restructuring. The pre-pack deal is expected to save most of the 2,000 jobs at the group.
The news was first reported by Sky News.
Before Plexus’s sell-off to McDougall and Roberts Parabis had been in talks with Bolton based Keoghs. However, the deal fell through when Plexus opted for the founding partners offer instead.
Plexus was the first firm to receive backing from a private equity investor after receiving its ABS licence in 2012. The firm was backed by Duke Street, which later injected a further £13m into the firm. Recently it emerged that Duke Street had written down its €30m (£21.4m) investment in the business to zero.
The firm also announced its second redundancy consultation in under a year, which was expected to affect 80 legal secretaries and support staff and 10 lawyers.
In October West End firm Jeffrey Green Russell (JGR) entered administration following several months of scouting the market for a potential merger. Days later Gordon Dadds announced it was acquiring JGR in a pre-pack administration deal, which saw it become a £30m full service firm. The firm will now be known as Gordon Dadds incorporating Jeffrey Green Russell.
In 2014 Gordon Dadds also acquired Davenport Lyons after the now defunct firm called in the administrators.
