News | Private Equity

Tuesday 29th January 2002

SJ Berwin advised a syndicate of investors, jointly led by Kennet Capital and Cazenove Private Equity, on a £22.2 million investment in Clearswift Limited and the subsequent £20.5 million acquisition of Content Technologies Limited from Baltimore Technologies plc. In addition to Kennet and Cazenove, Amadeus Capital Partners (an existing investor in Clearswift) joined the syndicate and further funding was provided by Bank of America Equity Partners and certain private individuals.

The SJ Berwin corporate team was led by partners Steven Davis and Andrew Harris, assisted by Ylan Steiner and Nicholas Plant. Norton Rose (Alan Crookes, Claire Gowers, Sherrill Taggart and Jason Moss) advised Clearswift and Lovells (Nigel Read, Jacky Dyas and Karla Dudek) advised Baltimore.

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 470 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• With the largest dedicated private equity team in Europe, comprising 140 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.
• SJ Berwin has recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000, and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.