Ares, Horizon back MBO of AgriBriefing

Alessia Argentieri
21 June 2019

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Ares Management Corporation and previous investor Horizon Capital have backed the management buyout of AgriBriefing, a data provider for the agri-food industry.

According to press reports, the company has an enterprise value of around £150m, which would equate to 15x its 2018 EBITDA.

The GPs plan to support the business by consolidating its market position and boosting its growth both organically and via new acquisitions.

Under Horizon Capital's ownership, the company has already completed two bolt-ons by acquiring French firm Global Data Systems in June 2016 and Urner Barry, a US-based data business, in October 2017.

Previous funding
Kester Capital, known at the time as GCP Capital Partners, bought AgriBriefing in February 2012. The deal saw the GP and management team purchase Farmers Guardian and Pulse from UBM. The newco was then renamed Briefing Media.

Mid-market private equity firm Horizon Capital, at the time known as Lyceum Capital Partners, acquired AgriBriefing in 2015 from Kester. The GP invested alongside the company's management team to support AgriBriefing in its organic and acquisitive growth strategy. Horizon deployed capital from its third fund, which closed on £330m in 2013.

Company
London-headquartered AgriBriefing provides data, pricing benchmarks, news and insights to the agri-food industry, with clients operating across a variety of sub-sectors, including precision farming, agronomy, food production, food retail, animal health, commodity trading, nutrition and biotechnology.

The company was established in 2012 as Briefing Media and subsequently rebranded as AgriBriefing in 2018. It employs 200 staff across the UK, Netherlands, France and the US. The company generated EBITDA of £5.7m from revenues of £19.2m in 2017 and expects to reach EBITDA of £10m from revenues of £30m in 2018.

People
Horizon Capital – Adam Lewis (partner).
AgriBriefing – Rory Brown (co-founder, CEO).
Ares Credit Group – Mike Dennis (partner, co-head of European Credit).

Advisers
Equity – Raymond James (corporate finance); Liberty Corporate Finance (corporate finance); Travers Smith (legal); Dorsey & Whitney (legal); Herald Avocats (legal); PwC (financial due diligence).