Deal: The founders of ArborSafe have sold the business to Civica Group.

Value: Undisclosed.

Area: M&A.

Key players: The legal team advising the founders was led by Hall & Wilcox corporate and commercial partner James Morvell, with assistance from senior associate Vanessa Murphy and lawyers Tamara Charlwood and Alexandra Berry.

Hall & Wilcox partner Anthony Bradica and senior associate Joshua Haddad advised on the tax law aspects of the deal.

Deal significance: ArborSafe Australia is a Melbourne-based tree asset management software business, while Civica is a global company building smart software that helps improve public services.

As per a statement from Hall & Wilcox, ArborSafe provides its national facility management clients – which range from publicly listed corporations, state and federal government agencies to universities and private and public schools – with expert tree consultancy services, tree reports, tree management plans and tree management systems through its experienced consulting arborists and market-leading software.

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“We enjoyed working collaboratively, at all stages of the transaction, with our clients and 333 Capital on the successful sale of the ArborSafe business,” said partner Mr Morvell.

“In particular, we are very pleased to have helped the founders on the sale of their business, which they have grown and operated since its establishment in 2005.”

Also commenting, ArborSafe founder and co-director Malcolm McKenzie said: “Hall & Wilcox have been a very highly valued legal advisor to our family business in all matters from employment law, through commercial agreements to company restructure and other areas of business law over many years.

“From my first phone call to James Morvell in relation to a possible business sale, Hall & Wilcox were quick, pro-active, experienced, dedicated, thorough and above all very highly personally committed to achieving the best outcome for our families in a successful sale of our business and enacting all the legal steps this encompassed.

“It is important to note that such a transaction only occurs only once in a business owners or shareholders’ lifetime – so you only get one chance to do it right, and James, Vanessa, Anthony, Joshua, Tamara and Alex ensured just that!”