News | Private Equity

Thursday 12th July 2001

SJ Berwin acted for nCoTec Ventures, NPM Capital and TTP Ventures in their £10,000,000 investment in The Idesta Group Limited, a mobile enterprise applications company. SJ Berwin have previously acted for nCoTec in connection with the establishment of their investment fund, and on several other investment transactions both in the UK and abroad, but it was the first time the firm had been instructed by either NPM Capital or TTP Ventures. The SJ Berwin team was led by private equity partner David Davidson, who was assisted by Jonny Jacobs and Matt Life.

Jonny Jacobs said:
"Naturally we are aware of investors' fears in connection with the present market, but we are nevertheless convinced that such concerns relate primarily to value. As a result, we have great faith in the superb team at Idesta's ability to turn the company into a real success story of the technology revolution and were delighted to have been given the opportunity, on nCoTec's kind recommendation, to work with NPM and TTP Ventures for the first time."

• SJ Berwin was founded in 1982 and is a full-service international legal practice with 119 partners and more than 430 lawyers.
• It has 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.
• Within the private equity team, SJ Berwin lawyers who focus on the technology, media and telecommunications market have advised clients on over 50 seed, start-up and development capital investments in the UK and Europe over the course of the last 12 months.
• 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.
• The Idesta Group Limited, led by David Farquhar, develops and licenses mobile enterprise applications together with the associated hardware. Idesta's product allows companies to connect employees on location, through handheld computers, to software running on main office systems.
• The product has different applications for various types of staff, including sales people, maintenance and repair staff, and transportation staff. Idesta already counts Unilever, Guinness and Interbrew among its clients.