In the last year, Moorcrofts LLP has advised its long-term clients the Finch family and the shareholders of both Nightingales Investments Limited (“Nightingales”) and Barnes Corner Investments Limited (“Barnes”) (formerly known collectively as the MRIB Group) on a demerger and subsequently two share sales.

MRIB Group was founded in 1972 by Peter and Maureen Finch offering general insurance brokerage services, and later financial services. Since then, the MRIB Group has grown from strength to strength developing the two different business lines. Eventually, in 2019, the decision was taken to separate the general insurance division of the business from the financial services offering.

Nightingales, designated as the holding company of the corporate insurance, private client insurance and the employee benefits brokerage division, together with J.N. Dobbin Limited and F&N (Reading) Limited was sold in November 2019, and rebranded as Partners&.

The sale of Barnes Corner, the designated as the holding company of the financial services division, which comprised of MRIB Limited, completed in the summer of 2020.

The new Partners& business now consists of a team of 200 people, based in 11 offices across the South East, Midlands and South West, and which control approximately £65m gross written premium.

Moorcrofts’ corporate partners, Teri Hunter and Will Pearce, led both transactions with support from corporate solicitor Mohsin Shabbir. Employment support was provided by Matt Jenkin, commercial contract support provided by Tim Astley and commercial property support by Julia Ferguson.

Elaine Woodall, said:

“We are grateful to Teri and her team for their help and assistance. Moorcrofts have been the company’s legal advisers for many years and they have always worked very effectively with us. During the course of these sales, Moorcrofts kept to tight time-scales and provided commercial advice and solutions to any matters that arose. We reached successful conclusions on each occasion, even for the sale of Barnes which exchanged and completed during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic”.

Teri Hunter, said:

“Moorcrofts have worked with the Finch family for over a decade and we are delighted to have joined them in their journey during that time. We were first instructed in 2010 in the acquisition of the Dobbin brand and have assisted on various corporate matters since then, including the acquisition of F&N (Reading) in 2019. We have worked particularly closely with Elaine Woodall, Edward Finch and Paul Finch over the last two years as they moved towards a sale of both divisions of the group. It has been a pleasure to assist the group over these many years and expect that the business will continue to go from strength to strength”.

Nunn Hayward LLP provided tax advice for the Nightingales and Barnes shareholders and Harwood Hutton provided tax and accountancy advice to Nightingales and Barnes.

For more information on company acquisitions and sales, please contact Moorcrofts corporate team.