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Email: Equity Ventures

Telephone: 0207 859 4106

We operate throughout the UK.

Track record - Examples of management buy-outs

This page contains examples of the transactions that the Equity Ventures team have been involved in. Most of them have worked out well; some haven't. As you will see, we have experience of transactions from a wide range of industries and which vary in size from under £1 million to over £100 million. On some of them we have been the investing venture capital firm; on some we were acting for banks; on others we have been advisers to the management team. We think our experience of MBOs from all sides is an advantage. We even did our own management buyout.

Deals where the Equity Ventures team have been investors

Clares Equipment - a management buy-out where we acted as Lead investor in a supermarket trolley and shelving business bought from Guinness PLC.

Compass Group (management buy-out, Syndicate investor) Exited from by flotation.

Associated Fresh Foods management buy-out, Joint underwriter) Exit by sale.

UNS Holdings - a management buy-out of 270 retail news shops.

Venture Plant (management buy-out, Joint underwriter) Machinery and plant hire group.

RHP bearings (management buy-in, Syndicate investor) Exited from by sale at an IRR of 131.1%.

York Trailer - the management buy-out of a manufacturer of trailers in UK and Italy.

Vickers Furniture - an MBO of the office equipment company. Exited from by sale.

Admiral Homes (start-up, Syndicate investor) Builder of homes in south-east England.

SG Industries (management buy-in, Syndicate investor) Specialist steel products in UK and USA.

London Clubs (management buy-out, Joint underwriter) Gaming operations, exit by flotation.

VCI (management buy-out, Joint underwriter) Exit by flotation.

Sheffield Forgemasters (management buy-out, Lead Investor) Buy-out from British Steel.

Textilion (management buy-in, Lead Investor) Exit by sale to Hollas Group.

Goldsmiths Group (management buy-out, Lead investor) Exit by flotation.

Glass Glover (management buy-out, Lead investor) Exit by sale to Unigate.

Aynsley Group (management buy-out, Syndicate bank) Buy-out from Waterford Wedgwood.

IRG Odgers Ray & Berndtson (MBI, lead investor, exit at 32.5% IRR plus retained stake).

Goldcrest Homes (expansion capital, exit at 25% IRR)

Baynflax (MBI - exit by receivership - not our best deal !)

Zoggs (expansion capital, investor) Distributor of fashion swimwear and goggles in the UK and overseas. We sold this company in 2015 having made just over 4x our investment.

Deals where Equity Ventures team have been advisers to managers

Humberts Limited
We obtained private equity interest for a turnround of this well known chain of estate agents which had been suffering from the rise of the online estate agency model. We were outbid - and the winner went into receivership - as have many others. Our management team are now running their own successful estate agent business in Mayfair - David Adams Luxury Property.

Hargreaves - MBO
We arranged MBO finance for this £80m turnover UK company which is primarily involved in moving coal from ports to power stations and waste handling. The deal size was £20m and we helped management achieve an 80% shareholding. The company floated on AiM and had a market capitalisation of over £100m.

Aspect - MBI
We successfully completed a management buy-in of two international language school businesses in the UK and USA by raising US$25m from Warburg Pincus who we selected having also generated competing offers from Advent, Alchemy, ECI, Graphite, and Mercury.

Cammell Laird MBO
We worked with a management team and got £8m of venture capital offers for the MBO bid for Cammell Laird's ship repair yards.

Spink
We worked with a management team and got £7m of finance offered for the MBI bid for Spink's Coins, Medals and Stamps in a divestment from Christies.

Bohlin Instruments Group - MBO/MBI
Equity Ventures advised the management and secured venture capital and bank finance for the £ 1m  MBO/MBI of this scientific instruments group with operating companies in the UK, US, and Germany. Bohlin was formerly owned by Bowthorpe plc. We helped the company and management team exit by sale to Malvern Instruments.

Go Plant - MBO
Equity Ventures arranged the deal, advised the management and secured £4m of finance for the MBO of the leading UK road sweeping equipment hire company. Go Plant was formerly owned by AAH plc and by Tarmac plc. Exit by private sale at an IRR in excess of 30%.

Rank Hotels - MBI
Securing £75m offers of finance for the proposed MBI of the hotel division of The Rank Organisation plc.

VCI plc
Assisted company in selecting sponsors for its £60m flotation.

Exhibition Company - MBO/MBI
Assisted in the selection of a lead investor for this potential $30m UK/US transaction.

Lands End - MBO
Obtained offers of finance for the potential MBO of this well known leisure company.

Goldcrest Homes - Development Capital
Obtained offer of finance for this specialist house builder. We also made a VCT investment in the company.

Anagen plc
Advised company management on discussions with venture capitalists and preparation of the business plan for potential flotation sponsors of this bio-technology company.

Private Equity firms and others who have done deals with Equity Ventures

Alchemy, Apax Partners, Bridgepoint Capital, CinVen, Barclays Capital, Prudential Ventures, 3i, Saudi International, Charterhouse, Citicorp Venture Capital, Mercury, Hg, Permira, Schroder Ventures, Graphite, Phoenix Fund Managers, CWB Capital Partners, Hambro European Ventures, Causeway Capital, ECI Ventures, Brown Shipley, Lloyds Development Capital, Bankers Trust, Legal & General Ventures, Candover, Baring Capital Investors, Chase Manhattan, Elders Finance, National Westminster Bank, Montagu Private Equity, Deutsche Kleinwort, Electra, Intermediate Capital, Henderson, SifCorp, Mezzanine Management, Aberdeen Murray Johnstone, Doughty Hanson, HSBC Private Equity Perscitus LLP.