Phoenix reaps 3.6x from Travel Chapter sale to ECI

Financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed, though the vendor generated a 3.6x return from the investment, equivalent to a 62% IRR. At the time of its initial investment, Unquote reported that the deal was understood to have valued the company at £30m.

ECI is currently investing from its 11th fund and typically writes equity cheques of £25-100m for companies valued at up to £200m.

Under Phoenix's tenure, Travel Chapter undertook an acquisitive growth strategy, bolting on 20 companies. The firm said in a statement that the company's profits trebled and its headcount doubled during its holding period.

According to publicly available documents, Travel Chapter's ultimate parent company, Grenville Topco, generated EBITDA of £4.2m from a turnover of £13.4m in the year ending in October 2017, with the latter figure almost double the business's £7.6m turnover in the year prior to Phoenix's acquisition. However, since the end of the 2017 accounting period, the group has made a further four acquisitions, according to its website.

The GP's investment in Travel Chapter was the first from its fourth fund, which closed on £415m in 2017.

Previous funding
Phoenix backed the buyout of Travel Chapter in 2016.

Company
Travel Chapter was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Bideford, Devon. The group owns brands including Holidaycottages.co.uk, Big Domain, Canine Cottages, Stay In, Sugar & Loaf and Farm Holidays.

People
Phoenix Equity Partners – Will Skinner (partner).
ECI Partners – George Moss (partner).
Travel Chapter – Jamie Morris (CEO).

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• Topics
• Exits
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• United Kingdom
• Phoenix Equity Partners
• ECI Partners
• Secondary buyout