Kirkland Advises EQT, IFS and WorkWave on Separation of IFS and WorkWave Businesses and Combination of WorkWave and Real Green Systems
Kirkland & Ellis advised global investment organisation, EQT, and its portfolio companies, IFS and WorkWave, on the separation of WorkWave from IFS, resulting in WorkWave becoming a standalone portfolio company of the EQT VIII and EQT IX funds (“EQT Private Equity''). Headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, WorkWave is a front running software solutions provider for the field service management (FSM) industry and serves verticals including the green industry, cleaning & janitorial, and route management with a particular focus on the US pest control market.
Separately, Kirkland advised WorkWave on the transformational add-on of Real Green Systems in the US. A separate Kirkland team also advised Real Green Systems and its selling shareholders, including Serent Capital.
Real Green Systems is a Michigan-based provider of software and payment solutions for the FSM industry. Existing IFS minority shareholder TA Associates will remain invested in WorkWave alongside EQT Private Equity; and Serent Capital will remain invested alongside EQT Private Equity and TA Associates.
The transactions, including the separation of WorkWave from IFS and the add-on acquisition of Real Green Systems, closed at the end of June 2021.
Kirkland fielded a multi-office team to advise on the separate elements of this transaction which included London corporate partners Roger Johnson, Aneeq Durrani, Andreas Philipson and Niklas Ahlklo and associate Henry Birch; New York corporate partner Leo Greenberg and associates David Towarnicky, Roland Templeman and Kevin Simms; and New York tax partners David Grenker and Tara Rhoades and associate Dana Quinn.
The Kirkland team advising Real Green Systems included Austin corporate partner Marc Browning, Palo Alto partner Rodin Hai-Jew and Houston partner Will Mabry and associates John Sheridan and Monique Groen.
