Temple Bright advises on OurIT/AdEPT deal

10/02/2017

Fast growing technology law firm Temple Bright has advised the shareholders of London-based IT services firm OurIT Department Limited on the sale of the company’s entire issued share capital to leading UK communications provider AdEPT Telecom plc. The sale includes both the OurIT business and its recently acquired trading subsidiary Brightvisions.

OurIT, founded in 1993, is an award winning outsourced IT services business with premises in the City and in Chingford, East London. The Brightvisions business, which was added to the group in April 2016, operates from St Neots near Cambridge. Both companies are focused on the London and South East market.

AdEPT Telecom plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is one of the UK’s leading independent providers of unified communications services. The company provides a portfolio of fixed line calls, line rental, mobile, IP telephony, equipment installation, managed services, IT services, Wi-Fi, IT and communications hardware and data connectivity products.

The OurIT deal will complement AdEPT’s existing offering, allowing AdEPT to provide a full managed service to customers, incorporating unified communications and IT.

The deal involved initial payment of £4.75m with an additional earn-out payment of up to £3.75m, in each case less net debt plus working capital. OurIT’s experienced senior management team will stay on following the sale.

Ian Fishwick, CEO of AdEPT, said:

“We are delighted to have acquired such a high quality, well-run and profitable business with a strong management team. OurIT Group is an excellent fit because, like AdEPT, it is asset-light, complements and builds upon AdEPT’s existing expertise and skills, and further extends the product and service portfolio by adding IT services.

“With the increasing convergence between telecoms and IT, this is an important step forward in our strategy to become a fully managed service provider. OurIT Group has a well-developed customer base with long term relationships across a range of medium and large enterprises. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing from completion.”

Tom Carroll, director of Our IT Department, said:

“I’m really excited joining forces with AdEPT as this will create one of the region’s largest fully managed service providers. The acquisition will offer new opportunities to our clients and our staff and it will also allow us to extend our range of service offerings. More importantly, AdEPT’s culture and company values are perfectly aligned with our own.”

Temple Bright corporate partner Stuart Hutson, who also advised OurIT on its acquisition of Brightvisions last year, said:

“We are delighted to have assisted the shareholders of Our IT Department achieve their goals over the past twelve months, ultimately leading to this successful exit.”

Temple Bright was established in 2010 using a tech-enabled, streamlined business model and now has 54 partners with offices in London and Bristol. The firm has a particular focus on corporate finance work across a range of sectors. Despite rapid expansion and a growing number of PLC clients, the firm retains a major focus on advising the owner-managed businesses and entrepreneurs for whom its model was originally designed.

This article appeared on the Bdaily website on 10 February 2017.

Stuart Hutson
  • Corporate