Epiris sells remaining Allflex stake for £70.3m

The company's enterprise value remains undisclosed, though the vendor held an 11% stake in Allflex prior to the divestment, according to publicly available records.

The exit represents a 1.9x return on the GP's reinvestment in the company in 2013, equivalent to an IRR of 23%.

The £70.3m generated by Epiris from the sale equates to an uplift of 2% compared to the valuation in September 2016, according to a statement issued by the GP, or to an increase in net asset value per share of 3 pence.

Allflex is also backed by BC Partners and Canadian pension fund Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP).

The final exit from Allflex is the latest in a series of divestments by Epiris, as it approaches the end of its 12-month notice period as investment portfolio manager of listed LP Electra Private Equity. It comes shortly after the partial divestment of information and intelligence business Axio Group, which sold forestry-focused subsidiary Risi to trade buyer Euromoney Institutional Investor for $125m in March.

Previous funding
Epiris (at the time known as Electra Partners) first backed Allflex in 1998, investing $46m in the $160m secondary buyout of the company from Goldman Sachs Private Equity.

The company was refinanced in 2005 and 2007, before Epiris sold it to BC in May 2013 in a $1.3bn deal. The sale generated a 15x multiple and a 28% IRR for the vendor, which reinvested £57m for a 15% stake.

In late 2014, Epiris provided an extra £12m of funding to support the $250m bolt-on of SCR Engineers.

PSP then acquired a minority stake in Allflex from BC and Epiris in June 2016, following which BC remained the majority shareholder. Epiris sold around 28% of its 15% stake for €72m as part of the deal.

Company
Founded in 1955 and based in Brittany, Allflex provides animal identification and monitoring products such as ear tags across all livestock species and pets. Its clients include farmers, state regulatory bodies, livestock industries, aquaculture operators and pet owners.

The company has operations in 60 countries and employs 1,700 people worldwide.

People
Epiris – David Symondson (investment committee chair); Chris Hanna (partner); Nicola Gray (investment manager).

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