LDC sells Mandata to Tenzing

Harriet Matthews
07 October 2021

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LDC has sold its stake in transport and logistics software developer Mandata to Tenzing.

Synova Capital acquired Mandata in 2013 via its debut fund. The GP sold its stake in the company to LDC in May 2018; the GBP 20m SBO generated returns of 8x invested capital for Synova.

Under LDC's ownership, Mandata made add-ons including Returnloads and Stirling Solutions. In addition to providing follow-on funding for the acquisition of Returnloads, LDC said in a statement that the company's headcount and revenues doubled during the investment period. The GP also assisted with the recruitment of Steve Spark as chief revenue officer, as well as Michael Tagg as chief financial officer.

Mandata is Tenzing's third platform investment from Tenzing Private Equity II, which held a final close in June 2020 on its GBP 400m hard-cap. The fund expects to make 10-12 investments, generally deploying equity tickets of GBP 20m-25m.

Debt was provided by Santander.

Tenzing said in a statement that it intends to support Mandata with the development of its brand awareness, digital marketing operations, market consolidation and international expansion, as well as with investment in technology.

Company
Mandata is a software platform for road transport operators. The software allows companies to manage workflow and data, ranging from order management to invoicing. Mandata employs 120 staff and has 2,000 customers.

The company posted EBITDA of GBP 1.85m and revenues of GBP 6m in the financial year to February 2017. For the year ending in February 2020, the company posted revenues of GBP 7.2m, versus GBP 5.6m in the previous year.

People
Mandata – Chris Rigg (CEO).
Tenzing – Guy Gillon (co-founder, joint managing partner).
LDC – Gareth Marshall (head of LDC in the North East).

Advisers
Vendor – KPMG (corporate finance, financial due diligence); Muckle (legal); Roland Berger (commercial due diligence).
Management – Paul Kaiser (corporate finance); UNW (tax).
Equity – Osborne Clarke (legal); PwC (corporate finance, debt advisory).