Horizon Capital commits £30m to Adeptio Law Group, completing the acquisition of FBC Manby Bowdler as part of a strategy to build a leading national legal services group. The investment is the first to be completed from Horizon Capital III.
FBC Manby Bowdler (“FBC”) is a full service law firm providing commercial, innovative and cost transparent advice to corporates, SMEs and individuals. With a history stretching back over 100 years, FBC has over 200 staff across 6 office locations and is one of the leading full service legal providers in the West Midlands. Under the leadership of Neil Lloyd, FBC has delivered strong growth organically across all service lines and has made and integrated three acquisitions enabling it to deepen its geographic coverage and expertise.
FBC represents the first acquisition for Adeptio Law Group which operates in an attractive and growing market which is highly fragmented, driven by strong tailwinds due to increasing levels of compliance and technology adoption. A significant consolidation opportunity exists and Horizon Capital is keen to support the business in playing a leading role in that consolidation.
Horizon Capital is committing £30m of equity capital to the group and will take a majority stake, supporting Neil Lloyd and the team as they execute an ambitious plan that combines continued organic growth and investment in technology with a number of complementary acquisitions within the West Midlands and beyond.
Neil Lloyd will lead Adeptio Law Group as CEO, a non-lawyer, having joined FBC in 2015 as Sales Director and was appointed Managing Director in 2020. Martin Smith joins at completion as Group Chairman; Martin has extensive experience in scaling professional services businesses under private equity ownership, as CEO and Chairman with Alcumus and Independent Governance Group. The new group executive team is completed by the appointment of Will Douglas, previously Director of Group Finance at BGL Group, as CFO. Horizon Capital Managing Partner Simon Hitchcock and Investment Manager Tom Kitchen complete the Group Board.
Alongside Horizon Capital’s investment, debt finance for the transaction and a committed facility for acquisitions has been provided by HSBC.
Horizon Capital was advised by HCR (legal), Lincoln (debt advisory), Bryanston Capital (corporate finance), RSM (financial), Teneo (commercial), Deloitte (tax), Innovation Broking (insurance) and CyberCrowd (cyber).
”This is an exciting time for FBC, our clients and colleagues. We are delighted to be partnering with Horizon Capital who have a strong track record in supporting companies such as ours to accelerate both organic and acquisitive growth. FBC has grown in recent years thanks to the hard work of our colleagues and the support of our clients, and we look forward to building on that success with this investment and the launch of Adeptio Law Group.
Neil LloydAdeptio Law Group, CEO
”We are excited to be investing in the legal services market which has strong organic growth drivers, in addition to presenting a clear opportunity for consolidation. We sourced the FBC opportunity through extensive mapping of the sector over the past 24 months and selected the business because of its diverse service range, investment in technology and its leading position in the West Midlands market. We are excited to be working with Martin Smith and Neil Lloyd to accelerate the growth of the business nationally.
Simon HitchcockManaging Partner, Horizon Capital
