Buckingham Corporate Finance advises Searchflow Management on the acquisition of ESRI (UK) Shareholding.
09-Jun-2005
Buckingham Corporate Finance Ltd., London, is pleased to announce its involvement in advising the management of The Conveyancing Channel Ltd (trading as Searchflow) in taking full ownership in the business.
Searchflow is one of only three companies licensed by the UK Government via the National Land Information System (NLIS) to carry out electronic searches to provide information on residential and commercial properties for conveyancers. In three years Searchflow has grown from start up to a turnover of £28m.
Buckingham Corporate Finance advised the management team lead by CEO Mark Riddick in acquiring the shares in Searchflow. In addition to structuring the deal they sourced the debt and equity finance to purchase 75% of the shares in Searchflow from ESRI (UK) Ltd, a technology supplier of GIS software. The deal also involved the acquisition of the Property Search Agency (PSA), a personal search business, which was founded by Mark Riddick in 1983.
Bob Fairchild, formerly managing director of the leading environmental search business, Landmark Information Group, is to become Chairman of the new holding company, Propertyflow Ltd. David Lock, a former Government minister with responsibility for the Land Registry and NLIS, has been appointed a non-executive director.
Barclays Ventures provided funding by way of an equity investment in Propertyflow with senior debt and working capital coming from HSBC.
