Travers Smith LLP has advised long-standing client Silverfleet Capital and other selling shareholders on the sale of Ipes, a leading provider of fund administration and outsourced services to private equity clients in Europe, to trade buyer Apex Fund Services.
Ipes was founded in 1998 and acquired by Silverfleet Capital and senior management in 2013. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength, boasting strong organic year on year growth and more than doubling its number of clients and staff. Ipes now employs approximately 265 staff across five European offices based in Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland. It has approximately 195 clients and administers £165 billion of assets for 390 funds. In 2017 Ipes was selected as the Real Deals "fund administrator of the year".
Mark Piasecki, Partner at Silverfleet Capital with responsibility for the financial services sector, commented: “We are delighted with the development of Ipes over the last five years. I am pleased that we were able to assist management in successfully executing their organic growth plan of investing in innovative new service propositions, such as Depositary, underpinned by significant investment into Ipes’ sector leading proprietary technology solutions of Capital Tracker and ID Register.”
Silverfleet Capital has significant experience investing in heavily regulated businesses in the financial services sector, and the sale of Ipes represents the conclusion of yet another successful investment in that space.
The Travers Smith team was led by Private Equity Partner Edmund Reed, Senior Associates Joanna Roberts and Genevieve Marten, and Associates Alistair Schaefer and Henry Don. The team also included Head of Financial Services & Markets Tim Lewis and Associate Sam Brewer, together with Tax Partner Russell Warren and Associate Edward Humphreys.
The sale is expected to complete later this year subject to regulatory approvals.