Houlihan Lokey Advises Bridewell Group Holdings Ltd.
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Bridewell Group Holdings Ltd., (Bridewell) has signed a definitive agreement for majority investment from Oakley Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard NewGen. The transaction will enable Bridewell to form a strategic partnership under common ownership with I-TRACING, thereby creating a leading pure-play cybersecurity services group in Europe, with ambitions to continue to scale across Europe and the U.S.
Headquartered in Reading, England, Bridewell has quickly grown to be the leading independent cybersecurity services company in the U.K. Bridewell provides managed and professional cybersecurity services across Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) environments, from architecture and design, governance, risk and compliance, fully managed security operations centre, penetration testing, and data privacy, with a strong differentiation edge towards critical national infrastructure and other highly regulated and complex enterprise clients. Bridewell has operations in the U.K. and the U.S. and employs more than 300 employees globally. Bridewell received investment in 2021 from specialist knowledge economy investor GCP, who has partnered with the business over the past four years to support the management in delivering its ambitious growth plans through investment in leadership, talent, systems, and processes alongside refining their GTM proposition, developing proprietary technology, delivering strategic M&A, and establishing international operations in the U.S.
I-TRACING was founded in Paris in 2005 and is the leading French managed cybersecurity services provider addressing all the most critical needs of its blue-chip clients. Benefiting from its one-stop-shop positioning, the company’s strong differentiation edge is created by its unique security operations centre managed services offering, protecting complex environments on a 24/7 basis, leveraging an integrated international “follow-the-sun” operating model. I-TRACING operates in France, Canada, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, China, and Switzerland and employs more than 700 cybersecurity experts globally.
This alliance brings together the market leaders in two of the largest markets in Europe, thereby creating a European cybersecurity one-stop services powerhouse. Under common ownership, the combination of I-TRACING and Bridewell will create the leading pure-play cybersecurity services group in Europe, with the shared ambition of further accelerating growth and continuing to scale across Europe and the U.S.
Anthony Young, Bridewell CEO, commented: “Bridewell has had fantastic growth over the past 12 years to become a leader in the U.K. cybersecurity market, and we are now all really excited about growing internationally and being able to support more companies around the world at a time of increased international tensions. I-TRACING and Bridewell, as clear leaders in their markets, backed by the ambitions of Oakley Capital, Eurazeo, and Sagard NewGen, will ensure we are able to protect more organisations and create a clear leader in the cybersecurity space.”
Mr Young added: “This is the second transaction that I have worked on with the Houlihan Lokey team, and they are an exceptional partner to have going through the process. They understand our business inside out, what we want to achieve from a partner going forward, and ensure that everything runs smoothly from beginning to end. The whole Houlihan Lokey team are truly focused on delivering the right outcomes for the business and the team, and they work day and night to achieve them. Big thank you to the team, and I look forward to hopefully working with them again on the next one.”
This transaction is subject to the customary closing conditions.
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