Orbis moves to Employee Ownership

Orbis Partners has transferred majority ownership to an Employee Ownership Trust. The deal represents the latest development of a business story that goes back over 25 years.

The journey started in 1999 when James Grenfell and Chris Gregory set up Invex Partners as Birmingham’s first independent corporate finance boutique. They were shortly joined by Gary Ecob, a newly qualified ACA, and after a strong period of growth Invex was sold to Kroll Inc in 2003 and Kroll Corporate Finance was formed.

Shah Zaki joined the business that year and after a successful period under Kroll’s ownership the business was re-acquired by James and Chris in 2006, with Gary and Shah joining the partnership under the new name of Orbis Partners.

Since Orbis was formed the team have worked on over 150 deals valued at over £3 billion and completed 34 investments through their investment vehicle Intrinsic Equity.  In 2010, Orbis entered a partnership with Clairfield International providing access to 300 colleagues and 30 associate offices around the world.The move to an EOT caps off a record period with recent deal activity including the sale of ICC Group and HL Smith to overseas acquirors; Bramble Foods to LDC; the secondary buyout for long standing client, Stuart Turner with Epiris and the cross border acquisitions of Scientia by Technology One and UK Customs Solutions by Castik backed Customs Support Group.