Charles Russell Speechlys has acted for Crown Agents Ltd on the sale of the firm’s financial services subsidiaries Crown Agents Bank (“CAB”) and Crown Agents Management Limited (“CAIM”) to Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private investment firm.

Crown Agents is an international development company that partners with governments, aid agencies, NGOs and companies in nearly 100 countries. It is one of the world's leading experts in public procurement and supply chain management and provides consultancy services in health, economic growth and trade, governance and state-building and humanitarian action.

Through two of its subsidiaries, it also provided financial services to facilitate development, trade finance and investment management for governments, NGOs and financial institutions. The company originates from the 1700s, when colonial administrations employed agents to procure and ship supplies to the colonies.

The sale completed 31st March following regulatory approval from both the PRA and FCA. It was led by our Financial Services Transactional Team, and exhibits the breadth of experience that Charles Russell Speechlys have to offer within the sector, drawing together specialist financial services focussed corporate, commercial and regulatory advice and expertise from across our other specialist groups, as well our particular Africa-focussed expertise.

“David Hicks and Nick Janmohamed led the team at Charles Russell Speechlys on this complex project to divest our banking and investment management businesses with an exceptional level of diligence and professionalism. David and Nick’s knowledge and experience of the sectors was invaluable to the successful completion of the project and their ability to advise calmly and authoritatively on the many commercial and technical issues that had to be considered, and to run the legal aspects of the project smoothly and to tight deadlines, allowed us to focus on those elements of the project that we needed to concentrate on and bring it to a successful conclusion.” – commented Maxine Drabble, Company Secretary, Crown Agents Limited

The Charles Russell Speechlys team was led by David Hicks, with support from across the Firm, including Client Partner Nick Janmohamed, Corporate Associate Sarah Aldersley and Partners and Associates from our Commercial, Regulatory, tax, Real Estate, Employment, Pensions, Banking and Finance and Intellectual Property teams.