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Ciara Stratford joined Ropes & Gray in 2019 and is an associate in the private equity transaction group. Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Ciara was an associate in the private equity team of the London office of a large international law firm. Ciara is currently on assignment in the New York office, temporarily relocated from London.
Ciara has a broad range of domestic and cross-border experience advising clients on general corporate, venture capital and private equity transactions. Ciara has particular experience acting for private equity investors, their portfolio companies and management teams in relation to acquisitions, disposals, investments and restructurings.
Prior to joining the firm, Ciara has been seconded to Bank of America Merrill Lynch within its EUME investment banking team.
Disclaimer
Ropes & Gray International LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in Delaware, United States of America and is a recognised body regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (with registered number 521000).
Experience
- Advised Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) on its investment in Travel Chapter, one of the UK’s leading holiday rental platforms, supporting the sale of the company to its management team from private equity firm ECI Partners
- Advised New Mountain Capital, and its portfolio company Datavant, in the acquisition of the Mirador Analytics group, a leading HIPAA Expert Determination provider
- Advised Cove Hill Partners on the sale of LiveAuctioneers to Auction Technology Group plc, which constituted a Class 1 transaction under UKLA rules
- Acted for the lead investor in connection with its Series A investment in BitBio, a synthetic biology company, and the subsequent series B investment round
- Advised Alibaba on the $1.1bn joint venture with Richemont and Farfetch, an online luxury fashion retail platform
- Acting for ICG in connection with:
- the acquisition of a minority stake in Irish software firm Globoforce Ltd (t/a Workhuman)
- the sale of its minority interest in Blackrock Expert Services Group, a disputes and expert advisory specialist firm, as part of the broader sale of the entire shareholding of Blackrock to Duff & Phelps
- Advised Xerox on its acquisition of Altodigital, one of the largest suppliers of office technology in the UK
- Acted for an executive director and investor of Urban Real Estate Partners, a specialist logistics and light industrial asset management platform, on the sale and equity restructuring of a c. €1.2 billion, 40-property pan-European logistics portfolio involving a major US private equity real estate fund and investment bank
- Acted for PG Impact Investments in relation to its senior and mezzanine financing to Tugende, a Ugandan based provider of lease-to-own financing to the financially excluded
- Advised Bridgepoint on its investment in digital marketing agency IDHL
- Advised Averna Capital on its investment in ClimateCare, a leading profit with purpose environmental and social impact company headquartered in Oxford, UK
- Advised Bridgepoint on its investment in Matrix SCM, a leading managed service provider for the outsourced hiring and management of temporary local government staff in the UK
Notable transactions in which Ciara has been involved prior to joining the firm include:
- Advising Bowmark Capital LLP on its public to private acquisition of AIM-listed Tax Systems plc.
- Advising boutique asset manager, Unigestion, on multiple primary investments and co-investments including nursery school platform Eduko and Ascent Underwriting, the leading cyber insurance and specialty focused Managing General Agent in the Lloyds of London market.
- Advising Inspired Education, the second largest global investment firm within the private education sector, on significant strategic growth investments by TA Associates and Warburg Pincus respectively.
- Advising Bowmark Capital LLP on a number of management buy-outs including The Instant Group, a global provider of independent flexible workspace and Lawyers On Demand.
- Advising Marlin Equity Partners on its acquisition of Arcserve from New York-based CA Technologies across 30 jurisdictions.
- Advising Bowmark Capital LLP and Five Arrows on the disposal of automotive data and software company Autodata.
- Advising Chinese technology firm Beijing Kunlun Tech Co on (as then) the UK’s largest series A investment in the Fintech sector into LendInvest – now the UK’s largest P2P marketplace for mortgages.
- Advising Vitruvian Partners on its series D investment round in FarFetch.com, the e-commerce site for independent boutiques has since gone public on the NYSE at a $5.8bn valuation.