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Project Eagle

Artwork by: Hilary Shopland

The Harlequin Series of Limited Edition Prints

No 27

In celebration of the acquisition of Metaphor IT by Kerv. It is my sixth transaction with Alastair Mills over the last 14 years starting with Spiritel and Harlequin’s 27^th.

The acquisition search was Project Eagle.

The eagle was painted by Hilary Shopland of Newbury.

Harlequin Corporate Finance supports team at Kerv as part of merger to create next-generation cloud-centric managed services company
30/07/2020

Alastair Mills and Mike Ing, in partnership with LDC, have brought together DoubleEdge Professional Services, Foehn, and Metaphor IT in an ambitious invest and grow strategy.

Harlequin Corporate Finance supported Alastair Mills and Mike Ing in respect of identifying Metaphor IT for the merger.

Kerv is a next-generation ‘customer-first, cloud-first’ managed services provider created to help mid-market customers achieve successful business outcomes in a new digital era.

Leading mid-market private equity house, LDC, has provided funding to enable the £30 million merger of three highly complementary, cloud-based managed services businesses to form Kerv: DoubleEdge Professional Services (UC, voice, data, mobility and compliance); Foehn (R&D team, Cloud UC and Contact Centre provider) and Metaphor IT (Cloud Services, Digital Workspaces, and IT Managed Services).

All three businesses are delivering double-digit growth rates in their own right and the new business will drive further organic growth, as well as identify further complementary acquisitions, supported by follow-on funding from LDC.

The group has been brought together by Alastair Mills, Six Degrees Group founder and former CEO, and also Mike Ing, former COO at Six Degrees Group.

Kerv comes to the market with current revenues approaching £20 million and a team of 100 across offices in central London; Richmond, Greater London and Vigo, Spain. It will offer business outcome focussed solutions, initially comprising converged IT managed services, unified communications, contact centre, security and compliance applications, all delivered in a way that will set the industry benchmark for excellent customer experience.

The leadership team at Kerv will consist of Alastair Mills as Executive Chairman; Mike Ing, Managing Director and Andrew Marshall, group CFO. The management team of each of the three businesses all stay with Kerv and join the senior team.

Kerv’s proposition puts the customer front and centre - helping to solve business problems and navigate a successful path into a more digital-led future. Through organic growth, acquisition and partnership Kerv is setting out to establish itself as a highly differentiated IT partner with a longer-term customer value proposition than the current norm. The explosion of high quality cloud solutions and the pace of innovation have changed the landscape for managed service providers and the array of options for mid-market customers.

Alastair Mills, Executive Chairman, Kerv says: “Our goal is not to chase short-term profit gains through aggressive cost cutting as we acquire complementary businesses. Instead, with the support of LDC, we plan to invest in great companies and accelerate organic growth through a relentless focus on CX. In a technology market that continues to consolidate rapidly through M&A, we feel that now is the right time for a change in focus and culture.”

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