One of the first firms to benefit from sweeping liberalisation of the legal services market in 2012, Parabis Group has been placed into a pre-pack administration in a move expected to save ‘all but a handful’ of the 2,000 jobs at the company.
Peter Saville, Ben Browne and Anne O’Keefe of AlixPartners were appointed joint administrators over a number of entities within Parabis Group. Immediately following the appointment, a series of sales of the group’s legal services, rehabilitation and field services divisions took place.
The appointment of administrators was made following an ‘extensive strategic review’ conducted as the result of a period of ‘financial difficulty and significant legislative change’.
The Parabis Group has now been broken up into seven pre-pack sales, with the defendant law firms bought by Parabis’s founders, while the claimant business has gone to Bristol-based Lyons Davidson.
The management of Plexus Law – the founder of Parabis Group – has acquired Plexus Law, Greenwoods Solicitors, Cogent Law and claims management division Parabis Claims Solutions.
Lyons Davidson has taken the claimant business of Cogent Law, as well as a joint venture with Saga. Premex Services has picked up rehabilitation and medical legal reporting arm Argent Rehabilitation; Davies Group has acquired Argent’s property and liability adjusters businesses; and ExamWorks Investigation Services has taken over the claims investigations business.
Commenting on the news, Saville said: ‘Despite the receipt of further support from its financial stakeholders, the group was unable to resolve its cashflow issues and sought to market itself for sale. As a result of that marketing process, it became apparent that in the current environment, a sale of the group as a whole was not a viable option and the liabilities attached to group entities also precluded a solvent sale.’
The series of disposals are reported to potentially raise just over £50m, less than Parabis’s £70m debt. The management buyout of Plexus Law was announced earlier this month, after talks with Legal Business 100 firm Keoghs broke down.
As Legal Business went to press, Manchester insurance firm Horwich Farrelly Solicitors announced it had recruited a 43-strong personal injury team from Parabis in a separate deal to the pre-pack administration.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk