TLT acts for Pollen Street Capital on acquisition of Leonard Curtis

TLT has advised Pollen Street Capital on the acquisition of a majority stake in professional services firm Leonard Curtis.

Leonard Curtis is a leading corporate restructuring provider operating across the UK and Channel Islands, which also provides legal, funding, M&A advisory and other business services for SMEs and corporates.  Pollen Street is a fast-growing private capital asset manager, with deep capability across the financial and business services sectors.

This acquisition continues recent trends of private equity investment into the professional services sector, highlighting strong activity levels and marking a notable new deal conducted in the North-West region. The Leonard Curtis group will continue to be led by current CEO Dan Booth, and Pollen Street’s investment will accelerate growth across the platform through product expansion, technology and M&A.

The TLT transaction team was led by Corporate Partner Alice Gardner, working alongside Philip Barratt (who led on the equity funding), Roy Grist (who led on the debt funding) supported by Luke Thorngate-Davies, Hannah Ward, Irina Angliss, Jo Grover, Dan Whitewood, Charlotte Farnsworth and Sam Hill. The multi-disciplinary TLT team also included advice from the firm’s Financial Services Regulatory, Tax, Employment, IP and IT, Data, Commercial and Pensions teams.

Alice Gardner, Partner in TLT’s Corporate team said:

“This deal is a great example of how private equity investment can make a real difference to enable a business to move forward to the next stage in its development and maximise growth opportunities. The professional services market continues to be a very active sector for consolidation.

“The transaction showcases the strength and depth of our Corporate and Banking teams by working on all required acquisition and funding elements as well as our expertise in financial and professional services by drawing on insights from across our regulatory practice groups.”

Jonathan Guest, Investment Director at Pollen Street, said:

“We are proud of our track record of supporting fast-growing players in the financial and business services ecosystems and are looking forward to partnering with the Leonard Curtis team for the next stage of growth.  We enjoyed working with TLT’s multi-disciplinary team, whose pragmatism, clarity of advice and responsiveness added real value throughout the transaction”