Press Release: 14 May 2021 Acquisition of Grovelands

LONDON, UK – 14 May 2021 – Davies, the leading specialist professional services and technology business, serving insurance and highly regulated markets, today announced the acquisition of Grovelands, the resourcing and consultancy firm specialising in fraud, financial crime, remediation and regulatory transformation projects to the insurance and other highly regulated markets.

Based in Brighton, UK, Grovelands will be incorporated into Davies Resourcing and will form part of the firm’s existing Consulting & Technology business led by CEO Mark Grocott. Ben Wilson, Grovelands CEO and founders Mark Davies & David Leen will continue to lead the day to day operations and the wider team will remain in their roles within Davies.

In recent years Davies has diversified and deepened its Consulting & Technology capability to provide customer experience, resourcing and learning solutions, as well as data & speech analytics, robotic process automation, legacy platform modernisation and product development for its 800+ insurance and highly regulated clients.

In March Davies announced a new shareholder, with BC Partners signing a definitive deal to take a majority stake in the business (subject to customary approvals), to support Davies next phase of international expansion and continued digital transformation. Globally Davies 4,300 colleagues operate across Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, the UK and US. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management.

Dan Saulter, Group CEO of Davies commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Ben and the wider team to Davies. The insurance market is undergoing significant digital and operational transformation. To ensure we can lead this change we must continue to invest in our consulting and technology operations to support our insurance and highly regulated clients. Businesses seeking to deliver transformation and regulatory projects want to do so without disrupting their business-as-usual operations and service delivery, which is where we step in.”

He added: “Diversifying our solutions and expanding our operations is an important plank to our growth strategy. By adding specialist consulting and technology solutions we can become more valuable to our 800+ global insurance and highly regulated clients.”

Ben Wilson, CEO of Grovelands added: “We’re delighted to be joining Davies, a likeminded business committed to delivering exceptional client service; and who are at the forefront of innovation. Davies has an excellent track record of investing in new technology and diversifying its solutions to better serve its clients. The cultural fit was an important factor for us and I’m pleased that this partnership will provide the Grovelands team with more career development opportunities within a fast growing, ambitious firm.”

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About Davies

Davies is a multi-award winning specialist professional services and technology business.  Davies delivers operations, consulting and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, transformation & change management. Davies’ core service lines include: Claims Solutions, Legal Solutions, Insurance Services and Consulting & Technology. Davies has a 4,300 strong team of professionals across the UK, Ireland, Bermuda, the US and Canada with headquarters in the City of London.  Davies’ investors are BC Partners, HGGC, AIMCo (acting on behalf of certain of its clients), and Davies’ employees following HGGC’s majority investment in January 2017 and AIMCo’s minority investment in January 2019. Davies’ programme of digital transformation has seen it successfully launch a range of technology-led solutions in to its insurance and highly regulated markets, including the use of video, drones, robotics and its “Disruptive Thinking” innovation lab that places the power of new ideas in the hands of its people. Over recent years Davies has consistently delivered double-digit organic growth through a combination of growing its solutions with existing clients and adding new partnerships to its business. In September 2020 Davies was named in Sunday Times PwC Top Track 250 as important mid-market contributor to the UK during the pandemic. In the past year Davies has added more than 150 new accounts to its organic platform. In addition Davies has successfully broadened and deepened its operations and digital capabilities via targeted acquisitions. Since the start of 2017 Davies has acquired: Cynergie, CMSL, Ambant, ServiceTick, TLSS, R&Q’s insurance services business, Ember, Direct Group’s claims businesses, Veriphy, USA Risk Group, TMS, GBB, Banwells, Frontier, FWD, ASC, Thornton Group, Keoghs, Codebase8, Citadel & Cedar Consulting, ContactParners, TriPlus, Johnson Claim Service, Vehicle Replacement Group, BMTS, Wakely Actuarial, Northshore International Insurance Services, DMS, NPA, Littleton and Grovelands. More information is available at www.davies-group.com.

About BC Partners

In March 2021 BC Partners announced a definitive deal to acquire a majority stake in Davies, the transaction is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the second quarter of 2021. BC Partners is a leading international investment firm with over €33 billion of assets under management in private equity, private credit and real estate. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role in developing the European buy-out market for three decades. Today, BC Partners executives operate across markets as an integrated team through the firm’s offices in Europe and North America. Since inception, BC Partners Private Equity has completed 119 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of over €150 billion and is currently investing its eleventh private equity fund. For more information, please visit www.bcpartners.com.

About HGGC

HGGC is a leading middle-market private equity firm with $4.3 billion in cumulative capital commitments. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., HGGC is distinguished by its Advantaged Investing approach that enables the firm to source and acquire scalable businesses through partnerships with management teams, founders and sponsors who reinvest alongside HGGC, creating a strong alignment of interests. Over its history, HGGC has completed more than 130 platform investments, add-on acquisitions, recapitalizations and liquidity events with an aggregate transaction value of nearly $22 billion. More information, including a complete list of current and former portfolio companies is available at www.hggc.com.

About Alberta Investment Management Corporation (“AIMCo”)

AIMCo is one of Canada’s largest and most diversified institutional investment managers with more than C$115 billion of assets under management. AIMCo was established on January 1, 2008 with a mandate to provide superior long-term investment results for its clients. AIMCo operates at arms-length from the Government of Alberta and invests globally on behalf of 31 pension, endowment and government funds in the Province of Alberta. AIMCo’s head office is located in Edmonton, Alberta, with additional offices located in Toronto, London, and Luxembourg. AIMCo’s Private Equity team comprises a dedicated group of experienced investment professionals and manages a private equity allocation of approximately C$6.0 billion. More information is available at www.aimco.alberta.ca.

Media contact:

Stine Nyplass, Group Communications Manager, Davies

Email: stine.nyplass@davies-group.com