Hi-tech helps firms issue last orders for Whitbread

Technology has come to the rescue of nine law firms facing the transfer of 4,000 properties in a single deal.The 1.6 billion buyout of Whitbread's pubs involved the sale of the company's entire 3,000-pub portfolio to Morgan Grenfell Private Equity.The firms acting for Whitbread, led by Slaughter and May, were: Morgan Cole, Blake Lapthorn, Forbes & Partners, Theodore Goddard, Cobbetts, Rickerby Watterson, Addleshaw Booth and Co, and Scottish firm Semple Fraser.

Freshfields acted for the buyer.The workload generated by the deal was split in two ways, with some firms taking on specific brands - for example the chain's 'Hogshead' high-street pubs - while larger divisions, including Whitbread Pub Partnerships, were allocated on a geographical basis.Morgan Cole partner Robert James - who led the team working on the western region of Whitbread Pub Partnerships - said the firms co-ordinated the sale mainly through e-mail contact and the Internet.

A major aspect of the deal was the creation of a 'virtual data room' by Slaughter and May's IT department, he added.

This took the form of a Web site containing all the paperwork related to the sale, and now contains more than 30,000 documents.

'There were around 4,000 separate properties, each generating a raft of details in its own right,' Mr James explained.

'When you are talking about a portfolio of that scale, it is impractical to have so much paperwork, however well organised the seller and lawyers are.'Mr James described the new technology as a 'quantum leap' from the traditional method of laying out paperwork for buyers to inspect in property transactions.

'The process becomes almost paperless,' he said.

'It is also instant - if the company or any other consultant has a role to play they do it electronically.

'Plus, it can be updated when new information and data comes in and you can scan in plans as well as the written word.'Paula Rohan