Livingbridge appoints Raymond James to sell FluidOne

Dominic Pasteiner , Min Ho and Charlie Taylor-Kroll
22 May 2023

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FluidOneтs private equity owner Livingbridge has hired Raymond James to manage the sale of the UK-based cloud solutions provider, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

London-based FluidOne is expected to be marketed off GBP 15m-GBP 16m EBITDA, two of the sources said with one adding that it was likely these numbers would reflect the expected 2024 earnings. The process is expected to kick-off towards the end of 2023, they said.

FluidOne's turnover jumped 24% in the year ending in March 2022 to GBP 41.7m, while its underlying EBITDA fell by GBP 0.8m to GBP 4.1m during the same period due to an increase in administration costs, according to financial filings.

Its exit run rate in March 2022 was GBP 57m revenue and GBP 7m underlying EBITDA, the filings show.

The company clocks GBP 68m in revenues, according to a June 2022 report from Unquote sister publication Mergermarket.

Livingbridge acquired FluidOne, which provides services including connectivity, cyber security, IT managed services, mobile, and Internet of Things, from Rigby Group in February 2019.

Since then, the company has made at least four acquisitions. Most recently, it purchased domestic IT infrastructure supply business Highlander Computing Solutions in February.

FluidOne, which has 310 staff and serves more than 1,350 customers and resellers, seeks bolt-on acquisitions to build out its Connected Cloud Capabilities, according to the Mergermarket report. The company prioritises targets generating GBP 1m-GBP 30m in revenues and aims to complete two deals per year, the report continues.

The company was founded in 2006 as Fluidata and rebranded to FluidOne in 2016 following its acquisition by the Rigby Group, its website shows.

FluidOne has an LTE score of 54 out of 100 according to Mergermarket's Likely-to-Exit (LTE) model, which tracks the likelihood of sponsors to exit a portfolio company with the days held and the days since FluidOne's last bolt-on being the leading contributors to the score. It is the fourth highest exit score for a Livingbridge asset as tracked by the model.

Livingbridge and Raymond James declined to comment. FluidOne did not respond to a request for comment.