ECI reaps 6x in sale of CarTrawler to BC Partners

Ellie Pullen
24 March 2014

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BC Partners and Insight Venture Partners have acquired Irish online car rental service CarTrawler from ECI Partners in what the GP calls its biggest ever exit in value terms.

The sale has been valued in the range of £300-380m in recent reports, which included Berkshire Partners and Charterhouse as potential bidders for the company alongside BC.

ECI reaped 6x its initial investment on the sale, which the GP says is its biggest exit by value to date. The deal also marks the first divestment for its ECI 9 fund, which closed above target on £430m in December 2008, after just three months on the road.

As part of the secondary buyout, Insight Venture Partners has invested in CarTrawler alongside BC, acquiring a minority stake. CarTrawler's management team reinvested to retain a significant shareholding.

Alongside buying out ECI's shareholding, BC and Insight acquired their stakes from the company's founders and other individual shareholders.

News of a possible sale by ECI came to light last July, when it was reported that the GP was looking to hire advisers for a potential auction of the business. The sale was valued in the region of £150m at the time.

ECI acquired a 50% stake in CarTrawler in May 2011. The deal was valued at around €100m.

Under ECI's ownership, headcount at CarTrawler has doubled while revenues and profits have more than trebled, according to the GP. The firm supported the company in expanding into new international markets, as well as bolstering its management team.

BC plans on continuing this same growth strategy by assisting CarTrawler in entering new markets.

Debt
A debt package has been supplied for the deal, with a debt-to-equity ratio of less than 50%. According to Reuters, Lloyds and RBC have provided a senior debt facility of around €150m.

Company
Founded in 2004, CarTrawler is headquartered in Dublin with a US office located in Boston. The company operates an online car rental service.

CarTrawler's platform is designed to act as a link between online travel retailers, including hotels and airlines, and car rental agents, allowing the former to offer car rental via the company's technology.

The business connects travel retailers to 1,200 car rental agencies across 30,000 locations in 174 countries. It employs more than 180 staff and is believed to have generated revenues of £425m last year.

People
Mike McGearty is the CEO of CarTrawler. Matthew Tooth is a senior partner at BC, while Nikitas Koutoupes is a managing director at Insight. ECI partner Chris Watt sat on CarTrawler's board of directors.

Advisers
Equity - Arma Partners (M&A); Dickson Minto (Legal); PwC (Financial due diligence, commercial due diligence, tax).