GCP reaps 4.8x on sale of Etc.Venues to Gencom et al.

The vendor was invested in the business via its third fund, a £160m vehicle that held its final close in May 2011.

Under GCP's tenure, Etc.Venues has added six new venues, bringing the total number to 15. It has focused on expanding its number of sites in London and Manchester.

The company increased its turnover from £21.9m in the year prior to GCP's initial investment, to £46.1m in the year ending in June 2017, according to publicly available documents, with operating profit growing from £1.7m to £8.7m during the same period.

Previous funding
Etc.Venues first received PE backing in 2006, when Dunedin bought the business in a £21m MBI, providing £6m in initial funding followed by a further £4m.

GCP then acquired the company in November 2012 in a deal estimated by Unquote Data to have been worth in the £25-50m range.

Company
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in London, Etc.Venues operates 15 venues in London, Manchester and Birmingham primarily designed to be used for training purposes, conferences, events, exhibitions and meetings.

People
Growth Capital Partners – James Blake (managing partner); Richard Shaw (partner); James Salter (investment executive).
Etc.Venues – Alastair Stewart (managing director).
Benchmark – Alex Cabañas (CEO).

Advisers
Vendor – Canaccord Genuity, Chris Robinson, Ben Spencer, Maxime Geraudie (corporate finance); Dickson Minto, Ewan Gilchrist, Alasdair Proudfoot, John Waller, Robert Norman, Andrew McAlpine (legal); PwC, Daniel Harris, Catherine Kay (tax).
Management – Jamieson Corporate Finance, David Kirkpatrick (corporate finance); Osborne Clarke, Tim Hewens, Seamus McKimm (legal).

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• Topics
• Exits
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• United Kingdom
• Growth Capital Partners (aka Close Growth Capital)
• Trade sale
• PwC
• Osborne Clarke