MHA Larking Gowen – Deals still being completed despite lockdown

MHA Larking Gowen is pleased to announce that it has recently acted for the shareholders of Ortoo Technologies (“Ortoo”) on the sale of the company to The Key Support Services Limited (“The Key”) despite the added complexities brought by COVID-19 to corporate transactions.

Ortoo Technologies are a software development company focused on the educational sector having developed the software: Govenorhub.  The Key are a group engaged in professional support to the educational sector providing the latest up to date information to all key stakeholders in schools.

Chris Kenyon, Chief Executive Officer, The Key said “The GovernorHub team has built the best platform available for governors to collaborate and support schools. GovernorHub deeply compliments our mission to give schools leaders the tools and knowledge to act at their point of need. After several months of discussions, we are thrilled to welcome Neil, James and team to the Key.”

MHA Larking Gowen, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors is an independent partnership and one of the UK’s Top 40 accountancy firms. The firm has been working with Ortoo Technologies as their accountants since the business was launched in 2012.

Jack Minns, Corporate Finance Director at MHA Larking Gowen said: “It was really satisfying to have helped a long-standing client of the firm achieve their goals and still complete to timescales despite the uncertainty brought by the COVID19 lockdown. I am sure that Ortoo will continue to grow and progress as part of The Key.”

Speaking about the process during lockdown, Alex Robinson, shareholder and Director of Ortoo Techolosites Limited said: “Lockdown started right in the middle of the due diligence process. We were concerned that this might delay things, but everyone switched seamlessly to remote working.

The advice and responsiveness just continued as normal, delivered via video and phone calls. The experts were all still available to us as and when needed.

Jack and the team at MHA Larking Gowen were extremely helpful and proactive. They could anticipate many of the questions that arose during the due diligence process and they were able to bring experts into the conversation on matters such as tax and valuation.

We were delighted to conclude the deal within the timescale and cost that was estimated, despite a few complexities on the way. Our only disappointment was that lockdown meant our celebration with the MHA Larking Gowen team and other advisers took place via video and not in person, but our thanks were sincere!”

For further information visit the MHA Larking Gowen website.