A legal-focused MSP business that was brought to its knees by a cyber-incident has been acquired in a pre-pack administration, saving 140 jobs.
The MSP division of the CTS Group, which ranked 180th in Oxygen 250, began a sale process after encountering financial pressures in the wake of the incident.
It comprised three businesses in the form of City Business Solutions UK Ltd, Converge-IT.Net Limited, Sprout Technologies Limited.
Upon appointment, administrator PwC completed a sale of the business and assets to Bluecube, which is part of Irish outfit Ekco after selling up to it in December. The sale included the transfer of substantially all business and assets, including all 140 employees.
Logging 2022 revenues of £24.2m, CTS Group is owned by Tenzing Capital. The announcement has no impact on CTS Group’s other businesses, namely Tiger Eye Consulting and Sprout Technologies NZ Ltd.
CTS Group’s MSP business was a specialist provider of cloud and managed IT services to legal firms and barristers’ chambers.
The November 2023 cyber incident “caused difficulties in trading with access to data severely limited for some customers”, PwC stated. Although the group restored operations in full by the end of December 2023, “the disruption led to financial pressures, resulting in a sale process being conducted”.
“The Group has longstanding and rich relationships with many organisations in the legal sector,” James Hawker, CEO of Bluecube, an Ekco company, stated.
“We view the addition of these customers as a strategic opportunity to build the leading MSP practice for the legal sector in the UK and Ireland.”
Helen Wheeler-Jones, joint administrator and director at PwC, added: “We’re delighted to complete this deal in a highly challenging market, safeguarding the future of the Group and providing long-term certainty. Following a period of disruption, this deal represents the best outcome for the Group and its clients across the legal sector.”
