Walkers, the Cayman head-quartered law firm with offices in British Virgin Islands, Dubai International Finance Centre, Ireland and Jersey, has announced that Intertrust Group has agreed to acquire Walkers' corporate, fiduciary and company
secretarial business, Walkers Management Services (WMS).
Intertrust, which is backed by Dutch private equity boutique, Waterland Private Equity Investments, was founded in 1952 and has become a global leader in the
trust and corporate services domain, with over 1,000 employees in 20 jurisdictions. The acquisition will assist Intertrust in further
expansion of its international footprint, particularly in key markets in the
Americas. As a
combined group after completion of the acquisition, Intertrust will operate with more than 1,100 people from 30
offices in 21 countries.
The sale appears to be further confirmation of two trends - the divestment by certain of the offshore law firms of their fiduciary businesses to allow a focus on core legal
services, and the emergence of a small number of "super-consolidators" in the fiduciary sector - firms who are gaining a material size and global reach sufficient perhaps to sustain an IPO in the future.
WMS has been part of the Walkers Group since 2001, providing
management services through its three core divisions: corporate, fiduciary and
company secretarial services. Walkers and the Intertrust Group have announced that they intend to continue to work closely in the future, and to avoid disruption to existing client teams where possible.
Wait until restrictive covenants have run their course and watch Walkers build a new fiduciary business!
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with what you say - they certainly wouldn't be the first to re-enter the market after a sale and in many ways it makes sense. These fiduciary businesses are a great source of revenue for law firms - it's just once they get to a certain size and capital value that holding them under a partnership structure becomes increasingly untenable.
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