Private equity house in deal with provider of tech-enabled conveyancing solicitors

Inflexion Private Equity has completed an investment in O’Neill Patient Solicitors (ONP), the UK’s leading B2B tech‐enabled provider of property and remortgage conveyancing services.

The investment is being made by Inflexion Buyout Fund V, Inflexion’s dedicated mid‐market fund.

As part of this investment Inflexion Private Equity has also acquired Grindeys, a specialist Stoke-on-Trent-based conveyancing business.

Established in 1987, Stockport‐based ONP processes more than 88,000 transactions per year for residential property purchases and remortgages.

The firm markets its services through its strong relationships with panel managers, mortgage brokers and banks, whose referrals
make up around 90% of ONP’s businesses.

The firm utilises a sophisticated case management technology which enables it to offer market‐leading service and efficiency, supporting unparalleled customer service, quality and turnaround times.

The market for residential conveyancing and remortgaging tends to be local and fragmented, with even the largest players commanding single digit market shares.

This provides excellent scope for service improvement and further investment in technology via consolidation, with the purchase of Grindeys a first step towards that.

ONP is also exceptionally positioned to cater to the market’s shift over the past two years towards remortgages, given management’s specific expertise in this area and tech‐platform investment to cater to this.

Sue Brown, ONP chief executive, said: “I’m extremely proud of the continued excellence ONP has delivered in this evolving industry.

“Our use of technology to enhance the client experience has given us an edge, one which we look forward to developing with Inflexion’s impressive in‐house digital team to continue to innovate in our market and deliver an exceptional service at scale to our clients.”

Simon Turner, Inflexion managing partner, said: “ONP has created an excellent property and remortgage conveyancing firm which has significant opportunity to grow further both by gaining market share and M&A.

“The business benefits from unique technology, which we will work with management to further develop.”

Following the investment, management will continue to be led by Sue with Pete Opperman as non-executive chairman and Daren Churchill from Grindeys also joining the board.

Today’s news come after Inflexion revealed it plans to grow its Manchester headcount by more than a third by the end of this year, as it looks to build on recent success.

There are currently seven staff working within the office,  which is led by partner Carl Wormald.

Inflexion’s North West investments include UKFast, British Engineering Services, Bollington Wilson, Radius, Granite, Mobica, and Huws Gray.

The firm announced a successful double fundraise of £1bn in May and £2.25bn last year.

DWF’s UK corporate specialists provided legal advice to Inflexion, led by partner, Alasdair Outhwaite and associates Rosie Spencer and Matthew Judge in Manchester, alongside Nick Crisp, a senior associate based in London.

Alasdair said: “This deal builds further on Inflexion’s strong track record in acquisitive growth and we are pleased to have once again played a role in bringing an Inflexion transaction to completion.”