MHA Moore and Smalley advises on sale of payroll services firm

{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

IPE Ventures, the private equity arm of the IPE Group, has acquired i4 Pay Partners, a leading umbrella payroll services provider to the veterinary, education and public sectors.

IPE has committed post-acquisition growth capital to facilitate further growth in i4PP whose founders will stay on to ensure a seamless transition to the acquirer’s payroll platform. i4PP will continue to build its brand and run independently.

i4PP joins Payme Ltd, a high growth FCSA umbrella company previously acquired by IPE Ventures, to expand the IPE payroll platform.

Adam Fletcher, Group CEO, IPE Ventures, commented: “We are extremely excited to welcome the i4PP team on board. The business has grown quickly and has great potential for further expansion. i4PP’s heritage is based upon compliance and customer service, perfectly aligning with our payroll platform values.”

The corporate finance team at MHA Moore & Smalley was led by Simon Carruthers and Phil Yarwood, with support from Jonathan Main and Caroline O’Shea from the Indirect Taxes team and Hasan Hashmi and Alex Gardner from the Tax Advisory team. TLT provided legal advice to the seller, led by Mark Traynor, Andrew Clare and Seraphina Wilkins.

Simon Carruthers, corporate finance director at MHA Moore and Smalley, said: “We’re delighted for the team at i4PP and that we were able to support them to achieve their goals during this complex sale process. The business can now look forward to another exciting chapter of growth with the backing of IPE Ventures.”

The founding shareholders and joint-CEO’s of i4PP commented “The MHA team were with us from the start of the sale process and, along with TLT, came together to create a great team which was instrumental in getting to a successful completion – we’re delighted with the outcome.”

Founded in 2005, i4PP has become a leading payroll services provider to the freelancer market. Partnering with recruitment agencies and end clients, it provides a compliant and secure way of paying contractors, freelancers, locums and agency workers for temporary assignments.