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Nabarro advises Crosby Capital Partners on acquisition of Forsyth Partners Investment Management
26 September 2007
Nabarro has advised AIM-quoted Crosby Capital Partners in relation to an acquisition of the UK based investment management operations of Forsyth Partners Limited and Forsyth Partners (Europe) Limited, which are both in administration. Under the deal, Crosby will be appointed as manager to a range of fund-of-fund products covering equities, bonds and alternative strategies, with approximately US$1.2bn in assets under management.
Crosby is a leading independent, deal-focused, Asia-oriented merchant banking and asset management group, which has offices located in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Forsyth Partners is an independent financial services group with offices in the UK, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa, which specialised in the international mutual funds industry through the provision of fund research and investment management services for investment professionals.
The corporate team at Nabarro was led by corporate partner Ian Binnie and restructuring and insolvency partner Glen Flannery, with regulatory input from partner, Rob Moulton. Also involved were Ed Craft (corporate), Will Santer (employment) and Kate Andrews (real estate).
Forsyth’s administrators are David Dunckley and Steven Akers, both of Grant Thornton. Forsyth and the administrators are represented by Paul de la Pena from Eversheds, London.
Glen Flannery commented that the transaction raised a number of complex cross-discipline and cross-border challenges given the need to deal with regulated activities across a range of jurisdictions (including Dubai, Cayman, Bermuda and Ireland) in an insolvency context, particularly since the group’s parent was located within the jurisdiction of the Dubai International Financial Centre, whose insolvency processes remain untested. In order to preserve goodwill and business confidence following the sellers’ entry into administration, the deal had to be fully negotiated and documented in the space of just a couple of days.
Corporate partner Ian Binnie, who led the transaction, added that "This was a complicated transaction that needed to be closed in a very short timeframe. Nabarro was able to speedily deliver the cross-discipline team required to get the deal done, by drawing on experienced partners in the specialist funds and regulatory practices which it has been building over the last few years. We were pleased to be able to capitalise on these strengths to offer Crosby such a complete service."
If you would like any further information or have any queries please contact:
Charlotte Tandy
Lansons Communications
T +44 (0)20 7566 9706
charlottet@lansons.com
or
Ian Binnie
Partner
Nabarro
T +44 (02)20 7524 6766
i.binnie@nabarro.com
