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Frenkel Topping declares £1.48m acquisition of prices consultants enterprise

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Salford-based Frenkel Topping Group has acquired Bidwell Henderson Costs Consultants for £ 1.48 million.

Bidwell Henderson is based in Alfreton, Derbyshire and Newcastle upon Tyne.

AIM-listed financial services company Frenkel Topping said it would pay £ 740,000 in cash at the time of the acquisition, £ 370,000 on the first anniversary and £ 370,000 on the second anniversary.

The sellers, Mark Bidwell, Rebecca Bidwell and Ann Delaney, will receive an earn-out of 2.5 times the amount in the year ended March 31.

Frenkel Topping said the acquisition is in line with the company’s strategy of pursuing quality opportunities in the market for professional pre-settlement services for personal injury (PI) and clinical negligence and driving consolidation.

Bidwell Henderson has built a leading bar association in England and Wales over the past seven years. It occupies a leading position in the creation of high-cost case plans that are required when large and complex legal cases incur significant costs.

The company covers specific areas of law, such as complex public and private family, housing, judicial reviews, protective courts, cases of abuse and clinical negligence. Additionally, according to Frenkel Topping, Bidwell Henderson challenges the traditional legal aid model and has built its success on developing additional legal aid, legal recovery and cost training services.

As a result, Bidwell Henderson is highly integrated with law firm back office systems. Although litigation is transactional, the business model used by Bidwell Henderson means that the nature of revenue is recurring.

Given Bidwell Henderson’s close ties to law firms, Frenkel Topping said this was a clear opportunity for Bidwell Henderson to offer its other services such as expert opinions in addition to the judicial work and traditional litigation that both the group and Bidwell Henderson undertake.

In addition, a number of litigation funded by legal aid results in large payouts to plaintiffs, so Bidwell Henderson offers the prospect of additional meaningful asset protection (AUM) opportunities for Frenkel Topping, expected to be immediately upon completion, increasing earnings.

It added that the company’s strategy is to make sure it has as many touchpoints as possible in the PI and clinical negligence space in order to capitalize on as many revenue opportunities as possible that the acquisition offers.

Founded in 2014, Bidwell Henderson has or currently employs 55 people in two offices and specializes in high-cost case plans and claims and legal assistance procedures where an assignment with reimbursement has been successfully placed.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, Bidwell Henderson had sales of £ 1.56 million, pre-tax income of £ 0.4 million and net assets of £ 0.4 million as of March 31, 2021.

The sellers will remain within the group to enable Frenkel Topping to further develop and maximize the cross-sell and up-sell opportunities offered by the acquisition, as well as to advance Bidwell Henderson’s core cost consulting within the group.

Richard Fraser, CEO of Frenkel Topping, said: “I am delighted to welcome Bidwell Henderson to the group. For the past seven years, Mark, Ann and Rebecca have built a leading law firm and were well known to the group prior to the acquisition talks.

“This acquisition is in line with our strategy of maximizing the touchpoints in the PI and Clin Neg space, with the added benefit of being able to sell Frenkel topping services to existing Bidwell Henderson customers and drive the AUM growth of the group . “

Rebecca Bidwell, Director of Bidwell Henderson, said, “We are very excited to be part of the Frenkel Topping Group.

“Bidwell Henderson is a growing company providing a range of legal services to attorneys. We have strategic and ambitious plans for the future. “

She added: “Becoming part of the Frenkel Topping Group will help us achieve these goals faster and will give our team additional opportunities. We look forward to bringing new opportunities to market and supporting more lawyers with the help of our bespoke and comprehensive in-house training program and our exceptional team members. “

Frenkel Topping also announced today that it will publish its interim results for the half-year ended June 30, 2021 on September 20, 2021.