Beech Tree nets 5.3x return on BCN sale to ECI

Rachel Lewis
21 June 2022

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Beech Tree Capital has netted a 5.3x return on its sale of UK IT management service provider BCN Group to ECI Partners.

The GP first acquired BCN in November 2018 via Beech Tree Private Equity Fund II, which deployed tickets of up to GBP 40m.

Beech Tree said it had helped BCN grow from GBP 10m to over GBP 40m over its four years of ownership. It has supported five bolt-on acquisitions, most recently Cloud2 and Public View.

The vendor added that BCN has evolved its capabilities from largely reselling IT hardware and IT support to providing a comprehensive digital transformation offering across Microsoft products.

The company was marketed off an EBITDA of GBP 9m in an auction led by Clearwater International, as reported by Unquote's sister publication Mergermarket.

Buyer ECI issued the equity ticket via ECI 11, which closed in July 2018 at its GBP 700m hard-cap.

The fund was 78% deployed as of February 2022, according to Unquote Data.

Company

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Manchester, BCN Group provides a range of IT-managed services to UK businesses. BCN provides on-premise, hybrid and cloud-hosting solutions, cloud-migration services, application support, voice solutions, data management, hardware sales and maintenance services to hundreds of customers across the UK.

Advisors

Beech Tree - Clearwater International (M&A); DLA Piper (legal); PwC (financial DD); PwC (commercial DD).

ECI - PwC (M&A); Squire Patton Boggs (legal); Armstrong (commercial DD).