RJD acquires majority stake in Class Tours

Under its new ownership structure, Class Tours will look to expand via bolt-ons and the acquisition of property.

Financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed, though RJD typically invests in businesses worth up to £50m.

As part of the deal, RJD partner Frank Bulman and managing partner Richard Caston will take seats on the Class Tours board.

The transaction is the fourth investment from the GP's third buyout fund, which held its first close on £50.5m in H1 2015, and its first investment in 12 months. In February 2015, the fund provided £11m to support the management buyout of Burgess Marine, while in 2016 it invested in the secondary buyouts of Babington Group from Bridges Ventures and Barber of Sheffield from PHD Equity Partners and Enterprise Ventures.

Company
Founded in 2008, Hove-headquartered Class Tours provides language programmes and educational tours to schools in the UK. It primarily operates under the Château de la Baudonnière and Voyager brands.

According to publicly available documents, Class Tours generated a turnover of £10.9m in the year ending in November 2016, with a profit on ordinary activities before taxation of £818,000.

People
RJD Partners – Frank Bulman (partner); Richard Caston (managing partner); Hugo Strachan (investment manager).
Class Tours – Nigel English (CEO).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• United Kingdom