Osborne Clarke has advised Rethink Group, the recruitment and talent management specialist, on an investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), and the acquisition of talent management company, Consort Group. The investment and acquisition follows on from the tender offer and delisting of The ReThink Group Plc from trading on AIM, which the Osborne Clarke team advised on earlier this year.

BGF, the UK’s largest provider of growth capital, has invested £2.5m in Rethink to facilitate the acquisition and anticipates further funding to support Rethink’s plans for organic growth and future selective acquisitions.

Commenting on the acquisition, Stephen Wright, CEO of Rethink Group said:

"The newly enlarged Rethink Group now has greater critical mass in the talent management sector where we are seeing significant and exciting growth prospects. Having delisted from AIM, we were keen to engage with an equity investor that could allow us to retain control of our business, but also provide us with the necessary capital for expansion of the Group, of which Consort is the first acquisition under our new strategy.

We engaged Osborne Clarke to assist us with this transaction, and on our journey from AIM traded to privately owned company, due to its strong corporate experience and recruitment sector knowledge. They coordinated several moving parts and I was impressed by their practical approach to solving issues that arose along the way."

The Osborne Clarke team advising Rethink Group was led by Associate Director Matthew Bodfield and Partner Andrew Saul, assisted by Associate Ranjini Ghose. Partner Kevin Barrow provided recruitment industry specific advice on commercial, regulatory and compliance matters with Corporate partner Mark Spinner and Associate Sarah Crabtree advising on the investment from BGF.

Osborne Clarke have a prominent recruitment sector practice, having acted on many of the largest sector corporate deals in recent years.