Inflexion mulls sale of Chambers & Partners

Ryan Gould , Charlie Taylor-Kroll , Josh O'Neill and Kezia Joseph
19 December 2022

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Buyout group Inflexion is weighing a sale of Chambers & Partners, the global provider of legal rankings, four sources familiar with the matter said.

The mid-market investor has appointed advisers at Harris Williams to gauge interest in Chambers with a view to launching a formal sale process next year, according to the sources. Given market conditions, the launch of a process is likely to come towards the second half of 2023, they added.

Founded in 1990, Chambers publishes a wide array of specialist rankings that help corporates to select legal advisers while also supporting the marketing and outreach of individual lawyers and their firms. Inflexion acquired a majority stake in Chambers for undisclosed terms in 2018.

Inflexion is expected to pitch London-based Chambers off forward-looking EBITDA of roughly GBP 20m (USD 24.5m), two of the sources said. The firm booked adjusted EBITDA of GBP 12.9m on revenue of GBP 34.8m for the 12 months to June 2021, noting in its accounts filing that it made "significant investments in technology" to support product infrastructure and research platform development.

With no obvious strategic buyer, the vendor is likely to target other private equity firms in its outreach, one of the sources said. Chambers describes itself as the world's leading legal rankings and insights intelligence company, offering research across more than 200 jurisdictions from offices in London and New York.

Information services has been a boon for M&A activity globally this year, spurred on by private equity interest in B2B analytics and data offerings. Permira's roughly USD 1.3bn (GBP 1.05bn) deal for distressed debt and bankruptcy intelligence provider Reorg and TA Associates's USD 1bn-plus acquisition of commercial real estate-focused Green Street are among the sector's largest deals this year.

Mergermarket reported last week that Intermediate Capital Group is weighing a sale of With Intelligence, the data and intelligence service geared towards the asset management industry.

A representative for Inflexion declined to comment. Chambers and Harris Williams did not respond to requests for comment.