News

£14 million MBO

Cavendish Corporate Finance has announced it has advised call recording specialists Red Box Recorders’ senior management and shareholders on the £14 million MBO to ISIS Equity Partners, a respected mid-size UK private equity house.

The deal was led by Cavendish partner Joe Stelzer and director Anya Cummins. Cavendish recently bolstered its partnership and further strengthened its technology media and telecoms sector team with the hire of former Clearwater Corporate Finance partner Nick Jones as a partner to focus on TMT and other dynamic companies. Other members of the TMT team, including partners Raymond Fagan and Linda Sullivan and director John Farrugia.

Cavendish completed on 17 company sales in 2012 and recent TMT transactions include the sales of: Helios, Europe’s leading independent air transport consultancy, to Egis Avia; First City Care, the security solutions firm, to Tyco UK; Primal Pictures Limited for £12m to Informa UK; The Profile Group Limited, a fashion information service, for £8m to Centaur Media plc.

Cavendish is a member of M&A International, the world’s leading international M&A alliance, which since January 2012 has completed 61 TMT transactions.

Joe Stelzer, who led the transaction for Cavendish Corporate Finance, commented “The voice recording sector is expanding fast driven by increasing compliance and regulatory demands and this deal will help ensure that Red Box Recorders can take full advantage of the growth opportunities that the market offers. The company’s technology is world-leading with some unique features, which should help underpin its increasingly international expansion. ISIS Equity Partners’ experience in the TMT sector and its knowledge and expertise in some of Red Box’s target sectors, such as Healthcare and Financial Services, makes them an ideal investor to help take the Company forward and enhance its competitive position in the market.”

We have seen an increasing appetite from private equity houses for mid-size TMT businesses. A number of mid-market private equity firms have made TMT one of their top sectors to target in 2013 and TMT businesses’ improved performance is being driven by increasingly rapid and radical innovation, trends in cloud computing and digital media, and corporates’ desire to capitalise on the efficiencies and potential productivity benefits adopting the latest technology promises. I think we will see increased competition between private equity and trade buyers for TMT firms this year, which should help owners secure strong exit multiples for their businesses.”