IMS
Liberty Corporate Finance advised The IMS Group on its acquisition of US based HedgeOp Compliance LLC, a leading provider of compliance consulting services to hedge funds, fund of funds and Private Equity funds based in North America.
HedgeOp provides complementary regulatory services similar to those that IMS carries out in the UK but for the US market, such as SEC registration applications, on-going compliance support and regulatory based projects. HedgeOp is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Boston and San Francisco.
The acquisition of HedgeOp marks a significant step towards the goal of IMS becoming the leading global regulatory consultancy to Hedge Funds and similar Alternative Asset Managers, following the investment in IMS by Sovereign Capital in late 2010.
Funding was provided by the UK Private Equity Buy and Build specialist Sovereign Capital and existing bankers to IMS, Lloyds Banking Group.
Liberty were appointed by IMS to advise on the transaction, assist with debt raising, provide experienced support to the Company, deal with transaction issues and provide general project management.
Steve Thomson, Director and Co-owner of Liberty commented:
“Liberty has enjoyed working with the management team of IMS on their first significant overseas acquisition since Sovereign Capitals investment and look forward to working with the team again”.
Andrew Insley, COO of IMS commented:
“Liberty provided invaluable support to us in transacting this complex transaction and their experience of both the business and M&A transactions ensured we received the advice we needed when we needed it. We will be engaging Liberty on future assignments and look forward to working with them again”