Supercharging international growth

Leveraging technology to drive customer engagement and experience, Uniguest solutions can be found in hotels, stadia, arena, senior living, retail, education, and corporate settings across the globe. On the back of its success in its core markets, Uniguest has grown dramatically, fuelled by private equity funding and plenty of ambition. Looking to develop its service offering beyond its core capabilities, the company came to Cripps to drive its strategic UK acquisitions.

The challenge: looking across the pond

Following private equity investment, global tech company Uniguest embarked on an ambitious growth journey sparked by a series of successful acquisitions.  Keen to expand its offering beyond the hospitality sector, Uniguest identified two UK companies it was interested in acquiring; ONELAN, a global leader in innovative digital signage tech and Tripleplay, an enterprise video and digital engagement platform provider.

These were Uniguest’s first acquisitions in the UK and the company turned to Cripps for support.  Uniguest needed a responsive and commercial law firm experienced in managing international transactions, private equity, and acquisition finance.

More recently, we have worked closely with Uniguest to acquire a third UK company, Planet eStream; a highly regarded education video, lecture capture and engagement provider, which augmented Uniguest’s expertise and capability in the education market.

Our approach: teamwork at its best

Working closely with the Uniguest team and its US lawyers meant we had a good understanding of the group’s operations and its approach to acquisitions. We understood what issues really mattered. Drawing on this knowledge, Cripps’ dedicated Transaction Services Team focused our due diligence on the issues of genuine interest to Uniguest, avoiding wasted time on immaterial legal points.

Pulling in our real estate, employment, finance, commercial, IP and data protection specialists meant that Uniguest could be reassured that it had genuine experts negotiating on its behalf; people that had seen the same issues many times before. For example, there are cultural differences between how UK and US organisations approach transactions and understanding them allowed the team to advise Uniguest on what it would mean to all parties if any one approach was adopted over another.

The outcome: looking forward to the next chapter

Today, Uniguest is a global success story, with 18,000 customers in over 100 countries and 500,000+ actively deployed digital signs. The UK acquisitions we have managed have fuelled growth and expansion into new and profitable sectors and into additional technologies.

Between transactions, the Cripps team is at hand to advise on specific questions as they come up. Every contact helps us to understand Uniguest better, enabling us to provide tailored advice to meet its needs.

How we made a difference

Knowledge of Uniguest’s business and strong relationships allowed us to focus on the issues we knew would be most relevant, making the acquisition process more focused and efficient. Our dedicated Transaction Services Team managed the due diligence process using a bespoke virtual deal room which could be accessed 24/7, giving Uniguest transparency and a clear sight of progress; particularly important given the different time zones and countries involved in the Tripleplay acquisition (Australia, Dubai, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the US). The TST coordinated due diligence across all countries involved and produced a single global legal report, making it easier for Uniguest to review the various arrangements in each country without having to refer to multiple reports.

Jeff Hiscox, CEO of Uniguest