Hewitsons represented the vendors in the sale of the St Ives based companies Elogbooks Facilities Management Limited, Elogbooks Facilities Services Limited and shares in 4D Monitoring Limited.
Specialist services group Marlowe Plc acquired the companies on the basis of an enterprise value of £14m. An enterprise value is a measure of a company's total value and is a metric used to value a company for a potential takeover.
Founded in 2010, Elogbooks provides a software tool which allows users to schedule compliance and maintenance activities and monitor them from start to finish, providing a full picture of the state of contractor activity, service delivery and the compliance of facilities. Its 4D monitoring solution connects to physical assets in buildings to feedback real-time compliance and building performance data.
The £7.35m paid to the sellers in cash on completion was funded by Marlowe by way of accelerated book build - an alternative route of obtaining quick financing from the equity market which involves offering shares in a short time period and is often done very quickly, in a matter of days.
Simon Moate of Elogbooks, who led the transaction on behalf of the selling shareholders, commented: "Delivering a transaction is complex and stressful on all parties during the best of times. COVID-19 has presented new challenges that compounded this. James Lawrence, partner, and his assistant Charlotte Bull were critical to the success of completing this deal.
“They adapted brilliantly, brought calm, commerciality and were proactive throughout the process. The Hewitsons team should be proud of the part they played.”
James Lawrence (pictured) added: “Notwithstanding the challenges that some sectors and regions are facing, there are still very substantial deals to be done in Cambridgeshire and in the technology sector in particular. We were delighted to represent the vendors in this significant sale.
“Praise must go to the whole deal team who have adapted brilliantly to our new way of working throughout the pandemic and are continuing to deliver the very high level of client service, for which the corporate team were recently recognised by Cambridgeshire Law Society.”
The corporate team at Hewitsons recently won a prestigious award in the Cambridgeshire Law Society Legal Excellence Awards.
Partner in the corporate team Laurence Evans, himself recognised as a ‘next generation lawyer’ in Legal 500 Client’s Guide to the Legal Profession 2020, accepted the award on behalf of his team at a ceremony in June.