Primary Capital backs Foster + Freeman MBO

Primary Capital typically writes equity cheques of £10-45m for companies with enterprise values of £20-100m.

Foster + Freeman generated an operating profit of £2.9m from a turnover of £20m in 2018, according to publicly available documents.

The business will invest in research and development under its new ownership model, with a view to launching new products.

HSBC provided debt financing to support the transaction.

Company
Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Evesham, Worcestershire, Foster + Freeman provides equipment for use in forensic science. Its products are used in questioned documents examination, fingerprint examination and trace evidence analysis. The company exports its products to 160 countries, according to a statement.

People
Primary Capital Partners – Alistair Armstrong (partner); Pete Lyons (investment manager).
Foster + Freeman – Bob Dartnell (managing director).

Advisers
Equity – Pinsent Masons, Nicole Livesey, Paul Krivosic, Ed Stead, Peter Morley, Oliver Morgan (legal); PwC, Simon White, Charlotte Hedar (financial due diligence, tax); Drystone, Robin Illingworth, Chris Winslet (commercial due diligence); Diligize, Davide Boiardi (IT due diligence); Highwire, Sandra Aldridge (management due diligence).
Vendor – Harrison Clark Rickerbys, Richard Knight (legal); RSK, Antonio Mendes, Dave Allen (environmental due diligence); JLT Marsh, Antoinette Swift (insurance due diligence).
Management – PwC, Cara Haffey, Tom Copeland, Rich Sanders, Vinny Uppal (corporate finance); DLA Piper, Tim Lake, Simon Wright (legal).
Debt – DLA Piper, Julie Romer, Anna Robson, Richard Normington (legal).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Industrials
• United Kingdom
• Primary Capital
• PwC
• Pinsent Masons
• DLA Piper