Temple Bright advises Global Freight Solutions team on Phoenix Equity Partners investment

06/03/2017

Law firm Temple Bright has advised the shareholders and management team of Global Freight Solutions (Holdings) Ltd, led by CEO Neil Cotty, on an investment by Phoenix Equity Partners, a leading UK middle-market private equity firm.

The Temple Bright team was led by Corporate partner Stuart Hutson, supported by James Vickerman (Corporate) and specialists in Commercial, IP & Technology, Pensions, Real Estate, Tax, and Employment. Phoenix was advised by City firm Travers Smith.

GFS is a leading provider of parcel and carrier management services to retail and B2B businesses in the UK. Using its proprietary technology platform, GFS arranges delivery of approximately 10 million parcels per year on behalf of over 300 customers, providing these businesses with access to over 1,000 different delivery options through approximately 50 carriers. The deal will provide GFS with additional investment to support the company’s continued development and growth.

Neil Cotty said: “Over the past few years, GFS has grown rapidly as e-commerce businesses increasingly recognise the importance of delivery options as a key differentiator and source of competitive advantage. GFS’s market leading technology platform allows SMEs to compete with the largest retailers on delivery, whilst our excellent relationships with our carrier partners allow us to offer the best possible range of delivery solutions to our customers, big or small. We are excited to be working with Phoenix – our partnership will give us the investment we need to ensure we remain at the forefront of our sector, and provide our customers with the very highest level of service.”

Richard Daw, Managing Partner at Phoenix, said: “GFS is a very well-respected business with a strong reputation in an attractive and rapidly growing market. Neil and his team have built a great company that uses its technology to provide an extremely valuable service proposition to its customers and carriers. We are delighted to be partnering with them at a time of continuing rapid growth and significant opportunity in the e-commerce market.”

Stuart Hutson said: “It was a privilege to advise Neil and the team on this deal which ushers in an exciting new phase for GFS. The process involved two dynamic client and adviser teams working together to achieve completion within a tight timescale. This was a pleasure from start to finish and, from our perspective, a further demonstration of the strength of Temple Bright’s partner-only model for deals of this kind.”

Temple Bright co-founder Tim Summers said: “Congratulations to the team at GFS on the conclusion of this important transaction which should provide a strong foundation for the next stage of growth.

“Congratulations also to Stuart and James, and the broader Temple Bright team comprising Nick Avery, Sam Elworthy, Dan Pearce, Comron Rowe, David Sanson, Chris Middleton and Carol Tricks. This deal has been a great demonstration of what our model can do, with a team of partners providing a full service and keeping pace with a highly respected City firm, Travers Smith.”

Temple Bright was established in 2010 using a tech-enabled, streamlined business model and now has 55 partners with offices in London and Bristol. The firm has a particular focus on corporate finance work across a range of sectors.

This article appeared on the Bdaily website on 6 March 2017.