Lonsdale scores fourth exit of 2021 with Cross Rental Services sale

Lonsdale backed the buyout of CRS in 2018. It marked the seventh deal for the GP since closing its first institutional fund on GBP 110m in April 2016. The sale of CRS is the GP's seventh exit since inception.

Since the 2018 deal, CRS completed two bolt-on acquisitions in the UK market (one in 2019 and one in 2020). Combined with organic growth, this resulted in a revenue compound annual growth rate of 31.33% between 2018 and 2021, the GP said in a statement.

Lonsdale has been active on the exit side this year, with four divestments. Prior to CRS, it sold UK-based mortgage broker Charles Cameron & Associates (CC&A) to Socium Group after two years of ownership for a 2.5x return. It also sold its holding in superyacht company GYG through a placing on the AIM stock exchange, reaping a return of 3x money and an IRR of 75%.

Elysian is investing via Elysian Capital III, which closed on its GBP 325m hard-cap in 2020. Elysian III looks to invest GBP 20m-40m in UK lower-mid-market companies with enterprise values of up to GBP 100m. 

CRS is the third investment in close succession for the GP. In early August, Elysian announced the purchase of UK-based healthy snacks producer Wholebake from Bridges Fund Management. A few weeks prior, it bought Eton Bridge Partners, a UK-based consulting firm specialising in practices covering corporate leadership.

Company
CRS operates across Ireland and the UK, and was founded in 2006 as a division of the wider Cross Group before being carved out as a standalone entity.

The company provides rental services to retail and commercial customers across two divisions; equipment-as-a-service, including rental of fridges, ovens and coffee equipment; and temperature control, including rental of heating and chilling units such as boilers, chillers and air conditioning units. It is headquartered in Dublin.

People
Elysian Capital – Ken Terry (partner).
Lonsdale Capital Partners – Ross Finegan (partner).

Advisers
Vendors – Houlihan Lokey (M&A); Burness Paull (legal); Ronan Daly Jermyn (legal); LEK Consulting (commercial due diligence); Deloitte (financial due diligence, tax).

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