Browne Jacobson advises Littlefish on LDC backed investment

Browne Jacobson has advised IT Services Provider Littelfish on successfully securing a minority investment from leading mid-market private equity investor LDC.

The initial investment and follow-on funding will be used for new product and service line development and to further its organic and acquisitive growth strategy.

The company, which employs over 200 people at its service centres in Nottingham and Greater Manchester, was established in 2003 and offers service desk, end user compute, infrastructure management, intelligent IT automation, cloud platforms, cyber security and IT consultancy services to the public, private and third sector.

The business currently serves over 35,000 users globally with clients spanning the public and private sector.

The Browne Jacobson team was led by corporate finance partner Mark Hughes, with a cross firm team that also included Ryan Brown, Rachael Russell and Lucinda Chaplin (corporate) and Shaun McCabe, John Swani and Tyler Isaac (banking) and Beth Dowson (tax).

Commenting on the deal, Steve Robinson, Chief Executive at Littlefish said:

“We have a fantastic team at Littlefish and with their hard work and dedication we’ve been able to grow the business into a truly formidable player. We know what our customers want and how to deliver it successfully. To embark on the next stage of our strategy we need to bring a partner on board that will give us the firepower to build on this momentum and scale, as we continue to successfully compete against our much larger rivals.

“Our partnership with LDC will allow us to do just that. The LDC team is committed to our ongoing journey and their flexibility, strategic expertise and financial support will help accelerate our growth plan. Their considered approach, and comprehensive understanding on what we want to achieve made LDC the right fit for us and we’re looking forward to working with them as we continue to take our market-leading services to more customers.”

Mark Hughes, partner at Browne Jacobson, added:

“Littlefish has grown from strength to strength in recent years and the time seemed right to bring on board an investment partner that recognises its growth potential.

“We are delighted to have helped the client secure investment to help them take advantage of future growth opportunities and further enhance its reputation as an attractive alternative to the larger Managed Service Providers and IT Outsourcing operators in the mid-market and enterprise space.”

Browne Jacobson’s award winning corporate finance team has recently been ranked by Experian as a top 20 UK corporate team, based on the volume of transactions.