Browne Jacobson dealmakers advise on Dutch PE firm’s investment into Cooper Parry

Browne Jacobson have successfully advised the partners of leading accountancy firm Cooper Parry on the agreement for Dutch based firm, Waterland Private Equity to invest in the business.

The award-winning accountancy firm, which is headquartered in the East Midlands also has offices in Birmingham and London. The business works with a diverse range of organisations including high growth tech and scale-up businesses, retailers, property businesses and not-for-profit organisations. Its specialist accountancy services include, audit, tax, service charge, wealth management and corporate finance.

With Waterland’s investment, Cooper Parry in the roll out of its five-year growth strategy will see them broaden out their service offering to existing and target clients, both nationally and internationally.

The Browne Jacobson corporate team advising Cooper Parry spans the firm’s various sectors and service lines in the Midlands. Partner, Richard Cox led on the sell-side and pre-completion reorganisation element of the deal, with support from associate Matt Dorman on the sell-side and senior associate Victoria Hustler on the pre-completion reorganisation. Partners Gavin Cummings and Sandra Wong advised on the investment by the partners alongside Waterland in newco, with support across the transaction from associates, Jack Milnthorpe and Sonia Bains. Partner Andrew Noble provided tax advice on the transaction.

Browne Jacobson partner Sandra Wong added: “Cooper Parry are one of the UK’s leading and the fastest-growing accountancy firm and have an excellent reputation in the industry for delivering high quality advice. With Waterland’s backing and expertise in buy-and build strategies, Cooper Parry will be able to expand its trusted and innovative profile into a wider international market and we are delighted to have supported them in this next exciting step towards that.”

Cooper Parry will now convert to a limited company whilst the management team will remain the same and comprises, amongst others, CEO, Ade Cheatham who said: “This is a really important milestone for our business. we are excited to have Waterland’s investment and expertise so we can further our growth story in the UK and realise our ambition of growing our international offering.

“We have worked with Browne Jacobson for a number of years, we trust them because they know the makeup of our business, understand our objectives and always deliver the best commercial advice so we were pleased to have their support on this exciting move.”

Browne Jacobson’s national corporate finance practice Jacobson is ranked by Experian as one of the country’s leading corporate finance teams. It operates from our offices in Birmingham, London, Manchester, and Nottingham and is made up of over 50 expert corporate, private equity, venture capital (VC) and banking & finance lawyers delivering multi-layered transactions across a diverse range of sectors.

The team works collaboratively with a rich, diverse and longstanding portfolio of domestic and international clients including, fast growing start-ups, FTSE 100 companies, private equity investors and the UKs leading banking institutions.