Birketts has advised Seetec Business and Technology Centre Limited’s founder and 80 per cent shareholder, Peter Cooper, in respect of his sale of 51 per cent of the company into a trust for the sole benefit of the company’s 2,500 employees.
As a result Seetec becomes the 9th largest employee-owned company in the UK by number of employees and the largest to provide public services.
A new employee council will be set up to manage and represent the interests of employees, so they can contribute to the future direction of the business and ensure that the culture, values, community roots and long-term viability of Seetec are nurtured and developed.
The Birketts team led by Nigel Thompson, (Partner, Corporate) and Lisa Hayward (Legal Director, Head of Employee Incentives) were supported by a number of colleagues including Devreaux Gravell, (Legal Director, Banking) and Kimberly Sayward, (Senior Associate, Private Client).
Peter Cooper commented: “For a transaction of this importance to me personally and to the business I had no hesitation in asking Birketts to help us achieve our objectives. As always, we had exemplary technical and transactional advice and support from Birketts’ multidisciplinary team. They were a pleasure to work with and provided first class service throughout.”
Nigel Thompson commented: “Birketts has a long standing relationship with Peter Cooper and Seetec. We were delighted to be able to utilise our specialist expertise in this niche area to help Peter to achieve his succession plan.”
Lisa Hayward commented: “We have been working on building awareness of employee ownership with the EOA for many years now and have supported several businesses to move towards employee ownership via EOT structures. This particular transaction marries the benefits of employee ownership with the delivery of public services and we are delighted to have been involved.”
The content of this article is for general information only. It is not, and should not be taken as, legal advice. If you require any further information in relation to this article please contact the author in the first instance. Law covered as at January 2020.