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Greenhill Capital Partners Europe has led the Â£30.5m buyout of snooker and pool hall businessRileys alongside JO Hambro Capital Management. Greenhill invested Â£11m to complete its seconddeal from its inaugural European fund, which held a first close on Â£106m in May 2007. The fundis targeting a final close of Â£200m before the end of the year. Rileys was acquired from AIM-listedGeorgica. Kaupthing provided a debt package to support the deal, which sees the investors take amajority stake in the newco.Greenhill was attracted to the deal due Rileys position as market leader in what is a fragmentedmarket Â– research shows that 89% of the UK's 1,500 snooker halls are owned by single-siteoperators. Greenhill will look to expand the business by increasing the number of outlets fromwhich it operates through organic growth and acquisition, and by refurbishing existing sites.

Company

Rileys is headquartered in Milton Keynes. It operates in excess of 150 snooker and pool hall acrossthe UK. In 2006, it generated EBITDA of Â£9.5m on revenues of Â£58.2m. Rileys employs 800staff.

People

Brian Phillips led the deal for Greenhill and joins the board of Rileys. Jeremy Brade and JamesAgnew worked for JO Hambro on the deal.