Graphite buys Opus Talent Solutions

Greg Gille
16 November 2021

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Mid-cap private equity house Graphite Capital has backed the management buyout of Opus Talent Solutions, a UK-headquartered recruitment business specialising in the technology and renewable energy markets.

Graphite secured a majority stake, with the asset being acquired from the company's founder.

The MBO is led by CEO Amy Golding and chairman James Kelly. Opus founder Darren Ryemill sold his stake as part of the transaction, and the senior management team will be reinvesting a substantial portion of its proceeds.

The deal is the eighth investment from the GP's GBP 500m Graphite Capital Partners IX fund. The vehicle is expected to make 8-12 deals in total. It focuses on UK mid-market companies with enterprise values of GBP 30m-150m. It can also back smaller companies with expansion potential.

Graphite has made several investments in the recruitment sector, including specialist firms such as PSD, NES Global Talent, Alexander Mann Solutions and Education Personnel. Its current investments in the sector include Ngage, a diversified recruitment business, and Empowering Learning, a teacher recruitment business.

Company
Headquartered in Bristol, Opus has 1,000 clients in more than 50 countries. It employs 300 staff across eight offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and the US. The business generates a combined net fee income (NFI) of approximately GBP 30m.

Opus operates three brands, with technology-talent-focused Opus Recruitment Solutions accounting for the majority of its NFI. JD Ross Energy sources talent for the renewable energy sector. The third brand, Nology (branded as _nology), was set up in 2019 as an online academy to help clients find technology talent among individuals from non-technology backgrounds and retrain members of their existing workforce.

People
Graphite Capital – Rachael Baker (partner); Mike Tilbury (senior partner); May Sulaiman (investment manager); Thomas Llewellyn (investment executive).

Advisers
Equity – Clearwater International, Marcus Archer, Dan Shrimpton, Gregory Cornes (M&A); Goodwin Procter, Richard Lever, Stanislav Shishkin, Caitlin Chan (legal); RSM Corporate Finance, Rob McCarthy, Ross Stupart (financial due diligence); Armstrong International, Matt McNally, Simon Hemsley, Ifan Dafydd (commercial due diligence).
Vendors – Azlan Advisory, Sohail Ahmad (M&A); Squire Paton Boggs, Tim Stead, Simon Ayling, Matt Lappin, Anna Diaz-Sanchez, Mary Brock (legal); Deloitte, Stephen Hall, Jo Robertson, Gordon Rowell, Elizabeth Linsley (tax).