Apiary invests in The Appointment Group

The GP held a £200m final close for its debut fund, Apiary Capital Partners I, earlier in July.

Unquote understands Apiary has invested £18m for a majority stake in TAG.

The firm has introduced Dnata Travel's senior vice-president for new ventures, Steve Barras, as TAG's new CEO. Maurice Veronique, who co-founded the business alongside John Gianquitto, will step down from the company, while Gianquitto will take on the role of founder and president.

Under Apiary's stewardship, the company will undertake an international expansion strategy, in addition to pursuing potential bolt-on acquisitions and investing in its technology.

Apiary was founded in 2017 by former Bowmark Capital senior partner Mark Salter, who was subsequently joined by former Inflexion Private Equity investment director Nicki Boyd, former Bowmark chief operating officer Nikola Sutherland and Rob Simpson, previously an investment manager at Sovereign Capital and director at August Equity.

Company
Founded in 1988, London-headquartered TAG provides a wide range of travel management services, including facilitating music tours. It has worked with artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters and Depeche Mode, and also offers corporate travel services for the financial services, sports, film and media sectors.

The business has additional offices in Manchester, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Nashville, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney. It has a total headcount of 270.

TAG generated a turnover of £19.1m in 2016, according to publicly available documents, with an operating loss of £240,000.

People
Apiary Capital – Nicki Boyd (partner).
The Appointment Group – John Gianquitto (co-founder, president); Steve Barras (CEO).

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