A firm’s PEXA guide on what to do in a merger, acquisition or restructure.
PEXA’s Practitioner Services Team works closely with large law firms around Australia, helping them attain the full benefits of a digital settlement experience. They have assisted a number of firms when the nature of their business structures changed, either through a merger, acquisition or restructure, and the way they are set up in PEXA requires alteration. There are many considerations a firm must be aware of when going through a change of this magnitude. The following points will assist any PEXA members about to go through a restructure, merger or acquisition.
PEXA registration
When a company goes through a merger, acquisition or restructure, a new registration may be required. This will be the case if the legal entity owning the business is changed, and/or the business is operating with a new ABN.
Contact your PEXA Direct Specialist, or PEXA’s Account Services team at 1300 084 515 as soon as you are aware that you will be going through this change, so we may help you with this transition.
In-flight Workspaces
Consider if your Workspaces will settle under the new entity. If the answer is yes, then once a profile is created in the new entity, invite them into the Workspace. The newly created profile will also have the ability to join an existing Workspace , in the role of an IP or POT.
Note: we recommend that the old profile withdraw from these Workspaces.
Client Authorisation Forms (CAFs)
Where there are existing CAFs, the new entity will need to determine if this needs to be redone.
Setting up new user accounts
User profiles are tied to email addresses.
When using the same email address
Your profile will have to be removed in order to set up your new profile in the new entity. As your email address remains the same, Subscriber Managers will need to contact PEXA to enable this change.
2. When using a different email address
Subscriber Managers can set up new profiles with the new email addresses. Once all necessary profiles are created, please notify PEXA’s Account Services team to terminate the old account. Please note that you may notify Account Services at any point in time. However, once the old account becomes non-compliant, it will be suspended.
It is important to note that you will need to order new Digital Certificates for the user accounts under new entity, as they are hard coded to email addresses and the ABN of the business.
Data from completed Workspaces
It may be necessary for you to retain information from completed Workspaces from the previous entity. Feedback from PEXA members who have transitioned to a new entity suggest that extracting what you require from these Workspaces prior to terminating your account is the best approach. Alternatively, you can request a csv file from PEXA Support.
If you urgently require something from these Workspaces that you inadvertently overlooked prior to terminating your account, PEXA Support may be able to assist.
Profile closure
Once everything has been completed on the discontinuing profile, please ensure that a Subscriber Manager or authorised signatory notifies PEXA to terminate the profile. This request should be supplied in writing by emailing: registration@pexa.com.au in the following format: “Please terminate the PEXA account for entity [Insert Legal Entity Name] with ABN [Insert ABN number] and all associated digital certificates. [Insert reason for termination]”
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