Osborne Clarke advises shareholders of Catalyst on Livingbridge investment

International legal practice Osborne Clarke has advised the shareholders of Catalyst Development, a specialist financial markets consultancy, on an investment from Livingbridge, one of the UK’s leading mid-market private equity investors.

Demand for Catalyst’s specialist services is significant, driven by far-reaching G20 commitments to making markets safer in the wake of the financial crisis. Their clients increasingly require ‘specialism at scale’ to tackle large, complex programmes of transformational change. Livingbridge’s investment will enable Catalyst to accelerate growth, by trebling their headcount, increasing their international presence and pursuing strategic acquisitions, in order to become Europe’s leading specialist financial markets consultancy.

The Osborne Clarke team that advised on the sale was led by corporate Partners Tim Birt and Mark Spinner and Associate Director Tom Try. Additional support was provided by Tax matters by Partner Tracey Wright and Senior Associate Elizabeth Shanahan and on Incentives by Associate Director Sue El Hachmi.

 Andrew Middleton, CEO Catalyst, commented:

“The Livingbridge PE investment represents a significant event in the history of Catalyst as we pursue our ambitious growth plans.  We have worked in partnership with Osborne Clarke for over 20 years and they understand our business extremely well.  They deployed a strong, multi-disciplinary team that was able to advise us on all aspects of the transaction, often at a very detailed level, giving us great confidence and security that the outcome we were looking for would benefit us as well as our investor.  I would like to thank them for the outstanding job they did, and for helping us navigate the legal processes so effectively and so quickly.”

Osborne Clarke’s corporate team is considered a go-to practice for many companies in the tech, media and comms sector, working with global businesses to fast-growth start-ups and market challengers. The team advises at every stage of company development across all corporate issues, from equity and debt fundraisings to M&A, IPOs and JVs.