The investment from MML, a specialist provider of partnership capital will power up investment in technology for Mourant Group, which offers legal, corporate, management and fund administration services.
The group employs about 1,000 people across nine finance centres, including Guernsey.
It is understood to have taken a 27% stake in the business, with its existing owner-managers, including lawyers, co-investing alongside.
‘We have built something genuinely distinctive – an enduring multi-disciplinary professional services group that serves the world’s most sophisticated institutional clients across legal, governance and consulting, all under one umbrella,’ said Jonathan Rigby, Mourant CEO.
‘This investment does not change what we are building.
‘It changes the pace at which we can build it.
‘Bringing deep sector experience, MML shares our high conviction in the integrated services platform, in the opportunity ahead of us, and in the team we have assembled. Our clients can expect the same Mourant they know, for the long term, with greater capability and momentum behind it.’
The move is unprecedented locally but it is understood that other firms are looking at similar investment deals.
In the UK, over the past five years, private equity investors have poured nearly £1.2bn into law firms, with more than £500,000 recorded in 2024.
Private equity investment in trust and fund administration business has been significant for more than a decade, with few options left in the market, and now other professional services firms, such as international offshore law firms, are increasingly attracting the attention of private equity, drawn by stable revenue models and growth potential.
Robert Devonshire, partner at MML, said the company believed that Mourant was ‘the most compelling platform in its market’.
‘The combination of legal, governance and consulting services under one umbrella, built on a culture that consistently attracts and retains exceptional people, is rare and genuinely durable.’
Mourant Group Limited will continue to wholly-own its governance and consulting businesses, as well as Mourant’s operational infrastructure and brand.
Control of the group, and its leadership, will remain with Mourant’s existing owners, and control and ownership of the law firm entities will remain with the relevant locally-qualified partners.
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