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European law firm Fieldfisher has advised the shareholders of Paragon Building Consultancy, one of the UK’s top independent building consultancy and project management firms, on the sale of a majority interest in the business to Colliers International, Inc., the NASDAQ and TSX-listed international real estate services and investment management company.
Led by corporate partners Andy Lawton Smith and Graham Muth from Fieldfisher's Birmingham office, the firm provided legal support to all 19 shareholders in Paragon throughout the transaction, underscoring the team's reputation for providing M&A advice to professional services companies and consultancies.
Founded in London in 2009, Paragon employs 150 professionals across six UK offices, who provide building surveying, project management, environmental assessments, and energy and sustainability consulting to owners, investors and users of real estate.
Paragon will be combined with Colliers’ existing project management business, bringing scale and additional capabilities to Colliers' services in the UK and Europe.
Under the partnership, Paragon’s senior management team will lead the combined operations and retain a significant equity stake in the combined entity.
Commenting on the deal, Fieldfisher lead corporate partner, Andy Lawton Smith said:
"This is an important deal in a sector that continues to thrive and grow as national private and public investment in large infrastructure and facilities remains strong.
"This was also a complex deal in the context of a people-orientated business, presenting the need to provide the founders and owners with a substantive realisation while also incentivising key personnel on which Paragon's success is based to ensure the business achieves its full potential in the next phase.
"We hugely enjoyed supporting John, Rob and the whole shareholder group through the deal, which was completed to extremely challenging timescales."
John Munday, managing director of Paragon, said:
"Andy and Graham lead a first class team on what was a less than straightforward transaction. What we did had no precedent, in the UK, in our sector and thus the exemplary service we received from the entire Fieldfisher team meant drafting was made easy to understand, was delivered with a smile and our team experience was made a whole lot more pleasant than it could otherwise have been!
"We will have no hesitation using them for future acquisitions we will make as well as recommending them to anyone entering a potential transaction of any type."