LONDON, UK: Frenkel Topping Group has acquired the entire issued share capital of Bidwell Henderson Costs Consultants Ltd, a leading legal costs consultancy, based in Derbyshire and Newcastle upon Tyne.
The total maximum consideration for Bidwell Henderson is £1.48 million of which £0.74 million is payable on completion and the balance of which will fall due in two equal tranches of £0.37 million on the first and second anniversary post completion with an additional earn-out being payable in 2024 if certain targets are met. Further details on the financial terms of the Acquisition are set out below.
The Acquisition is firmly in line with the Company’s strategy to pursue quality opportunities in, and to drive consolidation of, the pre-settlement professional services marketplace in Personal Injury (PI) and Clinical Negligence.
Bidwell Henderson has, over the last 7 years, built a leading legal aid costs agency in England and Wales. It holds a market leading position in drafting high-cost case plans which are required when significant costs are involved in large scale and complex legal cases. Bidwell Henderson covers specific areas of law such as complex public and private family, housing, judicial review, Court of Protection, abuse and clinical negligence cases.
In addition, Bidwell Henderson challenges the traditional legal aid costs firm model and has built its success on developing ancillary services in legal aid processing, legal cashiering and costs training.
As a result, Bidwell Henderson is highly integrated into law firms’ back-office systems. So, while litigation is transactional, the business model deployed by Bidwell Henderson means the nature of the revenues are of a repeat/recurring nature.
Given the close links Bidwell Henderson has to law firms this represents a clear opportunity for Frenkel Topping to offer its other services such as expert reports in addition to the court of protection work and traditional legal costing that both the Group and Bidwell Henderson undertake.
Finally, a number of legal aid funded cases result in large awards to claimants, so Bidwell Henderson offers the prospect of access to additional meaningful opportunities to secure assets under management (AUM) for Frenkel Topping.
The Acquisition is cash generative and is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing following completion.
As set out in the Company’s strategy, the focus is to ensure the Company has as many touch points as possible in the PI & Clinical Negligence space in order to capture as many revenue opportunities as possible, which the Acquisition provides.
Bidwell Henderson was first established in 2014, currently employs or retains 55 individuals across two offices and specialises in high-cost case plans and claims, and legal aided matter where an inter partes costs order is successfully ordered. For the year ended 31 March 2021, Bidwell Henderson generated revenues of £1.56m, reported a £0.4m profit before tax and with £0.4m net assets on the balance sheet as at 31 March 2021.
The sellers will remain within the group, to further enable us to develop and maximise the cross-selling and up-selling opportunities the Acquisition offers in addition to driving forward Bidwell Henderson’s core cost consultancy practice within the Group.
Frenkel Topping Group Plc share price
67.25 GBX+0.25 (0.37%)today
16 Aug, 8:49 am GMT+1 ·Disclaimer
Leave a Reply