Law Business Research has been acquired by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners

Livingstone’s Media & Technology sector team has advised the senior management team of Law Business Research (LBR), a leading provider of research, news, data and insight on international business law and legal markets, on the secondary management buy-out backed by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP).

Established in 1996, LBR creates essential and unique content spanning 120 jurisdictions across its brands, serving a client base that comprises major corporations, government agencies and the global legal industry.  It is a leading information provider in fields such as competition law, arbitration law, cross-border investigations and Latin American corporate law. Over 95% of the world’s top law firms work with LBR.

The transaction provides an exit for private equity firm Bowmark Capital, which acquired the business in 2013.

Paul Howarth, LBR CEO, commented: “With Bowmark’s support, we have made excellent progress in recent years, continuing our record of 21 years of consecutive double-digit growth.  As demand continues to grow for increasingly sophisticated and timely information by the legal profession, we look forward to capitalising on the many opportunities ahead with the support of our new partner.”

He continued, “We were delighted to have Simon and Jamie guide us through the complexities of the transaction. LBR had previously worked with Livingstone on a debt refinancing and therefore we knew that their hands-on support, expertise and excellent knowledge of our broader sector would add real value at every stage – they didn’t disappoint.”

“It was a pleasure to work with Paul and the wider team to negotiate this deal with LLCP. The management team now has another strong financial partner to pursue its global growth ambitions and aligned incentives to benefit from the future upside.”

This transaction is the latest of Livingstone’s recent Management Advisory credentials, following on from the MBO of ATCORE backed by Inflexion Private Equity, the sale of Musto to Helly Hansen, the MBO of CSL backed by Iconiq Capital and the sale of Long Tall Sally to TriStyle Mode GmbH.