Stevens & Bolton’s M&A team advised the founding shareholders, Dr David Haws and Dr Andrew Evason, on the sale of Actica Consulting, the Guildford-based specialist provider of digital transformation, cyber security and technical consultancy services to the public sector, to private equity firm Sovereign Capital Partners.
Actica was established in 1998 and works predominantly with central government clients across the UK as part of long-term, mission-critical programmes. It enables clients to become more efficient, effective and secure through supporting areas including strategy creation, architecture development, digital transformation, cyber security optimisation, data analytics and business intelligence. Actica has a strong reputation for technical excellence, collaborative problem solving and delivery. Sovereign is backing the highly successful management team, led by Dr Mike Murphy, with plans to grow the business both organically and through selective acquisitions. David Haws and Andy Evason have materially reinvested in the business and will remain on the board as non-executive directors.
Oscar Horwich, corporate partner at Stevens & Bolton said: “It was a pleasure to advise David and Andy on this important step for them and for Actica. Sovereign has a history of backing and partnering very successfully with high-calibre businesses and management teams so we are delighted to have supported David and Andy through the process and wish them every success having secured this significant investment.”
David Haws and Andy Evason commented: “We are very proud of Actica, the team and everything that has been achieved over the last 24 years. Sovereign recognises our premium offering and the opportunities to develop the business in this rapidly evolving market. With their partnership and investment, we look forward to seeing the business continue to flourish. We really appreciated the advice and assistance from Oscar Horwich and the rest of the M&A team at Stevens & Bolton who provided expert, timely advice and brought to bear a huge amount of experience of transactions like this.”
The Stevens & Bolton team was led by corporate/M&A partner, Oscar Horwich, together with Keith Syson, Krishna Patel, Nassar Nassar, Edward Cummings and Tom O’Dell (corporate), Kate Schmit (corporate tax), Gustaf Duhs and Robert Eriksson (competition and regulatory), Rachel Collins (employment), Tom Lingard and Joanna Adcock (intellectual property) and James Hardaker (tax and trusts).
Oscar Horwich