Ashurst advised Ares on the unitranche financing of the acquisition of BULPROS and ec4u by Silverfleet Capital. BULPROS and ec4u are merging, backed by a majority investment of Silverfleet Capital, to deliver next generation digital cloud experience to enterprises. The transaction is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities.

BULPROS with headquarters in Sofia/Bulgaria is a digital transformation company whose offerings include enablement of digital solutions, cyber security solutions, cloud migration and managed services, as well as technology services. The technology company was founded in 2010 and currently has over 1,000 employees across 20 offices in Europe and North America. ec4u was founded in 2000 and specialises in the digital transformation of business-critical processes in marketing, sales, service and e-commerce. Based in Karlsruhe, the company employs more than 400 experts across several European locations. ec4u and BULPROS have been collaborating since 2018 in the field of digital cloud solutions. The company founders and management teams of both companies will remain as shareholders and continue to operate the merged company.

Silverfleet Capital has been a leading European mid-market private equity investor for more than 30 years. The investment in ec4u and BULPROS builds on the firm’s extensive experience with tech-enabled businesses.

Listed on the New York stock exchange, Ares Management Corporation with managed assets of $197bn is a leading global alternative investment manager operating integrated groups across credit, private equity, real estate and strategic initiatives. Ashurst already acted for Ares several times.

The Ashurst team was led by partner Anne Grewlich. She was assisted by counsel Gabrielle Metherall, associate Emilie Veyran-Müller and senior transaction lawyer Julia Donnecker (all Global Loans). From the Corporate M&A team, partner Dr Gerrit Clasen and counsel Martina Rothe were involved. Senior associate Christian Sotta provided advice on tax law.