Inflexion and NVM in £100m CloserStill investment

The deal, which is thought to value the company at £100m, saw Phoenix selling its entire holding and generating returns of more than 3.5x.

Over the past three years, under the stewardship of Phoenix and NVM, CloserStill has expanded internationally, with 20% of revenues now generated outside of the UK, while total revenues have trebled and profits quadrupled.

Inflexion's cash injection will be used to support organic growth into new geographical markets, as well as targeted acquisitions.

Previous investment
The deal marks another step in CloserStill's growing private equity history, having first received backing in October 2008 when NVM invested £7m to fund a buy-and-build strategy.

NVM supported CloserStill's acquisition of Pioneer Global Media and Principal Media for a combined value of less than £4m in June 2009, according to unquote" data.

In March 2011, NVM injected a further £3m to launch new company Closer2, focused on B2B exhibition management.

Phoenix first invested in the company in May 2012, in a deal that valued CloserStill at £25m. NVM retained a 10% stake following the transaction.

Company
Headquartered in London and established in 2008, CloserStill facilitates professional events in the healthcare and technology sectors.

People
Kevin Keck is a partner at Phoenix. Andy Center is CEO of CloserStill. Simon Turner is managing partner of Inflexion. Peter Hodson led the deal for NVM. 

Advisers
Equity – Trillium Partners (Corporate finance); PwC (Financial due diligence); Jones Day (Legal); AMR International (Commercial due diligence).
Vendor – DC Advisory (Corporate finance); Mayfield Media Strategies (M&A); Addleshaw Goddard (Legal); Kerman & Co (Legal); KPMG (Financial due diligence); Armstrong Transaction Services (Commercial due diligence).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Inflexion Private Equity
• NVM Private Equity
• Phoenix Equity Partners