Palatine invests in Estio

Kenny Wastell
20 September 2018

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Palatine Private Equity has invested in Estio Training, a UK-based provider of IT, digital and technology apprenticeships.

The deal is the GP's third investment made with capital drawn from Palatine Private Equity Impact Investing Fund, a 2017-vintage £100m vehicle. Financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed, though the fund typically targets businesses requiring equity tickets of less than £10m.

Estio will look to expand its UK footprint and will initially open a new centre in Birmingham. It is also in the process of doubling the size of its Leeds office and plans to expand its facilities in Manchester and London.

The business aims to increase its headcount by more than 100% and its number of apprentices in training from around 750 to 2,000 over the course of the next three years.

Palatine's impact fund is currently invested in electrical training provider Trade Skills 4U and HR software company E-Days.

Company
Headquartered in Leeds, Estio is a provider of apprenticeship programmes for data analysts, infrastructure technicians and software developers. The business offers 10 programmes and its clients include Santander, Asda, The Cooperative Group, NHS trusts and UK local authority bodies.

People
Palatine Private Equity – Beth Houghton (partner, head of impact); James Gregson (investment director).
Estio Training – Robert Turner (director).

Advisers
Equity – BDO, Chris Heatlie, Thomas Smith (financial due diligence); Cairneagle, Arun Kanwar, Sam Lecacheur (commercial due diligence); The Quinn Partnership, Mike Stiles (management due diligence); Addleshaw Goddard, Andrew Green, Katie Parker (legal); RSM, Colin Smyth, Tim Douglas (tax).
Vendor – Grant Thornton, Peter Terry, Gemma Hardy, Cariad Mudford, Joe Pollard (corporate finance).