Private equity deal values Parabis at up to £200m

Tim Oliver Foil

Private equity form Duke Street has taken a “significant” stake in legal and claims management company Parabis.

According to Duke Street, the deal values Parabis at between £150m and £200m. The private equity firm expects Parabis to generate revenues of around £160m for the year to March 2012.

The transaction is expected to complete in the first quarter of this year, subject to approval from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Parabis management team, led by chief executive Tim Oliver (above) and commercial director Tim Roberts, will remain with the business and continue to be significant shareholders. 

Duke Street operating partners Paul Lester, former chief executive of VT Group, and Bob Scott, former group CEO of Aviva, will join the Parabis board as non-executive directors. Lester will become chairman of Parabis on completion of the deal.

“The intention is to support [Parabis’s] management with Duke Street’s operational expertise in transforming the business from a professional services firm to a business process outsourcer, and to drive the continued consolidation of the legal services industry via Duke Street’s successful buy-and-build model,” Duke Street partner Iain Kennedy said in a statement.

Parabis provides personal injury litigation services under the trading names of Plexus Law and Cogent Law, and acts for  a number of insurers in the UK.  The group litigates around 200,000 cases a year.

It also provides claims management outsourcing, rehabilitation, loss adjusting, and health and safety assessment and audit.