Cyberspace boardroom

INTERNET: site provides medium for structuring deals

A former City solicitor has helped launch a capital raising and deal management Web site which has attracted the interest of several leading City law firms.

Veenay Shah, vice-president of Dealcomposer.com, is in negotiations with several law firms, including Allen and Overy -- the firm he left after two years as a banking lawyer to join the new venture -- Herbert Smith and Nabarro Nathanson, to offer their services on the site.Mr Shah said his Web site, launched this month, is the first Internet-based cross-border capital raising and deal management system.

It offers a medium where lawyers, investors and accountants can meet in cyberspace and structure deals.

Top US firm Coudert Brothers has already signed up.

Partner Timothy O'Brien said the Internet is a hitherto untapped resource for deal structuring and capital raising.

'The opportunity to help develop and capitalise on the potential offered by the Internet for sophisticated structuring and efficient deal management is an exciting one.'

Law firms can upload standardised legal templates onto Dealcomposer's 'documentation function', where the terms and conditions of the deal in question are mapped onto them.

The contracts are then passed to the other party, where any changes made are tracked and highlighted.

Nabarros partner Andrew McLean said that if Dealcomposer proves to be as globally successful as hoped, it will mean a major new marketing channel for their firm.

'We would be able to reach overseas investors that we have never been able to before.'

Victoria MacCallum