Kennedys advises Black & White Engineering on the restructuring of its global business

We advised Black & White Engineering on the restructuring of its global business and the sale of a majority stake to Waterland Private Equity Limited.

Black & White Engineering (Black & White) is a global engineering consultancy which employs more than 500 professionals worldwide and has a presence in the Middle-East, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

The highly complex deal involved the completion of the internal restructuring of Black & White’s international business under its UK Holding Company, and advising the company owners on all aspects of the sale of that entity to a newly incorporated triple stack investment holding structure. At the same time, a new Employee Benefit Trust was set up for Black & White.

The transaction involved operations across 10 international jurisdictions and 17 different operating entities.

It was led by United Arab Emirates based corporate partners Sean Angle and Tania de Swart, alongside senior associate Daniel Bunoza and associates Kinjal Labroo and Firas Habib. They were supported by the following teams:

• United Kingdom corporate team led by partner Matthew Poli and supported by associates Laura Harrop and Sheena Purohit;
• United Kingdom tax disputes and investigations team led by partner Andy Brown and supported by senior associate Christopher Young and associate Jessica Tham;
• United Kingdom employment, labour relations and business immigration team led by partner Matthew Leake and supported by legal director Julian Cox;
• Australia based commercial partner Nicholas Blackmore and employment partner Chris Molnar; and
• Singapore based senior associate Desmond Gan and associate Petrina Koh.

Commenting on the transaction, partner Tania De Swart said “We were delighted to work with the Black & White management team on this significant transaction that will bolster their global expansion ambitions. The seamless collaboration of Kennedys’ cross-border multidisciplinary teams demonstrates the global connectivity of our talented teams working together to deliver success for our clients”.