Peter Dickens, Sarah O’Toole and Helen Wheeler-Jones of PwC have been appointed as joint administrators of City Business Solutions UK Ltd, Converge-IT.Net Limited, Sprout Technologies Limited, together “the Group”, which form the Managed Service Provider ‘MSP’ division of the CTS Group.
On appointment, the joint administrators completed a sale of the business and assets of the Group to Bluecube Cyber Security Solutions Limited. The sale includes the transfer of substantially all business and assets, including all 140 employees.
Headquartered in Daresbury, the Group is a specialist provider of cloud and managed IT services to both legal firms and barristers’ chambers in the UK and Ireland.
A cyber incident in November 2023 caused difficulties in trading with access to data severely limited for some customers. While the Group was able to successfully restore operations in full by the end of December 2023, the disruption led to financial pressures, resulting in a sale process being conducted.
Today's announcement has no impact on the trading business of Tiger Eye Consulting Limited, which remains within the existing CTS Group. Sprout Technologies NZ Limited was also not included in the deal.
Helen Wheeler-Jones, joint administrator and director at PwC, said:
“We’re delighted to complete this deal in a highly challenging market, safeguarding the future of the Group and providing long-term certainty. Following a period of disruption, this deal represents the best outcome for the Group and its clients across the legal sector.”
Rob Pritchard, restructuring director at PwC, added:
“Having responded to recent complex challenges, this deal now ensures continuity of services for clients throughout the UK and Ireland while providing a platform for the Group’s continued growth.”
Commenting on the deal, James Hawker, CEO of Bluecube, an Ekco company, said:
“The Group has longstanding and rich relationships with many organisations in the legal sector. We view the addition of these customers as a strategic opportunity to build the leading MSP practice for the legal sector in the UK and Ireland.
“We are confident that we can offer both the Group’s people and their customers a smooth transition to Bluecube where we will provide them with market leading IT services that allows their business to grow.”
-Ends-
Notes to editors:
Bluecube media contact: Ronan O’Connor, ronan.oconnor@ek.co
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