Four deals in Five Years – The journey to buy, build and merge Metaphor IT
Over a five year period we advised the shareholders of Metaphor IT on three acquisitions and their merger with LDC backed Kerv.
“Having been introduced to Alinea at the start of our journey, they have been with us through each of our strategic corporate transactions. In addition to being an absolute pleasure to work with, his understanding of the sector, attention to detail and ability to position an opportunity has driven shareholder value at every turn”. Richard Callis, Managing Director
The Acquisitions
2015 – Acquisition of Intellect Security providing a platform into IT Security sector.
2016 – Acquisition of Virtual Workspaces providing End User Computing technologies.
2016 – Acquisition of Tegan providing additional managed service capabilities.
Following the acquisitions Metaphor focused on integrating the three businesses and driving organic growth. The next three years saw Metaphor IT win an envious list of blue-chip FTSE 100 clients whilst increasing attractive recurring incomes from managed services.
The Merger
In 2020 we advised the shareholders of Metaphor IT on its merger with DoubleEdge Professional Services and Foehn to form Kerv, a transaction backed by LDC with a combined value of £30m.
Kerv, a next-generation ‘customer-first, cloud-first’ managed services provider, was formed by Alastair Mills and Mike Ing (respectively former CEO and COO of Six Degrees) in partnership with LDC private equity.
Simon Lloydbottom of Alinea says, ‘you often meet very gifted and successful people, but rarely do you meet a whole management team who you know will be a such a great success right from the start of their venture. To achieve what the shareholders have achieved in the space of five years is exceptional, it’s been an exciting and enjoyable journey to advise them on all their transactions along the way’.