Inflexion sells LCP to Charterhouse for £300m

The vendor has generated a 3x money return on the deal and the acquirer preempted an auction process for the asset by submitting an early bid for the company, according to a source close to the situation. The company was valued at £300m, the source added.

Charterhouse is currently investing from its 10th-generation fund, which closed on €2.3bn in November 2016. Investments are typically within the €300m-4bn size bracket.

The firm intends to help LCP's continued development by supporting its management team and partners in continuing organic growth and market share gain of the core business, while pursuing growth opportunities in the analytics and technology platforms within the business.

LCP's executives and employees own a majority of its shares, and the company's partners will increase their share as part of the transaction.

Inflexion and Charterhouse declined to comment.

Previous funding
Inflexion acquired a minority stake in the business in 2016. The firm invested £41m in the company, which was valued at £128m. Capital for the transaction was drawn from Inflexion's 2014-vintage £400m Partnership Capital Fund I.

The fund, which is now fully deployed, has made two realisations to date, according to Unquote Data. LCP will join speciality finance company Radius Payments Solutions and media agency CloserStill.

Company
Founded in 1947, London-headquartered LCP is a financial consultancy that specialises in pensions, investments and insurance. Its clients include businesses, trusts and charities, and it is headquartered in London and Winchester. The business employs 800 people. For the year ending on 31 March 2020, the business generated revenues of £126.5m, up from £86.2m in 2016.

People
Charterhouse – Robert Leeming (partner).
Inflexion Private Equity – Philip Edmans (partner); Adam Moss (assistant director).

Advisers
Equity – LEK (commercial due diligence); 8 Advisory (financial due diligence, tax). 
Vendor – Houlihan Lokey (corporate finance); PwC (financial due diligence); Addleshaw Goddard (legal).

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• Topics
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• Houlihan Lokey