Lyceum acquires Timico in deal worth more than £50m

The company's founder, Tim Radford, reinvested and will retain a seat on the board as non-executive director.

Under its new ownership model, Timico will look to expand via an acquisitive growth strategy. It will also invest in sales and marketing activity, in addition to new product development.

According to a statement issued by Lyceum, the deal was sourced via an off-market process. The firm's partner, Simon Hitchcock, and development partner Geoff Neville will take a seat on the Timico board following the transaction.

A spokesperson for Lyceum told unquote" the GP's capital for the transaction was drawn from its third fund, which held a final close in May 2013 on its £330m hard-cap.

As part of the deal, Timico has also appointed former Kcom managing director Clodagh Murphy as chief operating officer and former Capita managing director Simon Payne as chief commercial officer.

The investment thesis follows a similar model undertaken by the GP with former portfolio company Adapt. Lyceum sold the IT company to US trade buyer Datapipe in August 2016 following a five year holding period that saw the business bolt-on eLinia and Sleek, in addition to introducing new recruits to its senior management team.

Lyceum also acquired a majority stake in communications support and consultancy firm Sabio in July 2016, in a deal valuing the business at £50m.

Debt
The lenders involved in the deal are Ares Management and the company's incumbent house bank Santander.

Company
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Newark, Nottinghamshire, Timico is a provider of cloud-based IT systems. The business has a headcount of around 300, including its additional operations in London and Winnersh. It has around 500 clients, including Hobbs, Mitsubishi Motors UK and the Savoy Hotel, and generates revenues of £56m, according to the statement. In 2015, the company generated a turnover of £41m with adjusted EBITDA of £4.1m, according to publicly available documents.

People
Lyceum Capital – Simon Hitchcock (partner); Geoff Neville (development partner); Mehul Kantaria (origination director); Anne Sofie Staunsbaek (investment manager); Anne-Claire de Pompignan (banking and investor relations director); Tom Maizels (investment executive).
Timico – Ben Marnham (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Oakley Advisory, Daniel Havercroft (corporate finance); Pinsent Masons, Andrew Masraf (legal); EY, Olivier Wolf (commercial due diligence); PwC, Tom Ayerst (financial due diligence).
Company – Lincoln International, Chris Brooks (corporate finance); Eversheds, Jon Cox-Brown (legal).
Management – Wyvern Partners, Martin Kitcatt (corporate finance); Penningtons, William Axtell (legal).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• United Kingdom
• Horizon Capital (formerly Lyceum Capital)