Rutland acquires Gardman from TPG et al.

Mikkel Stern-Peltz
24 June 2015

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Special situations investor Rutland Partners has acquired British home and garden products manufacturer Gardman from a syndicate of banks in an all-equity deal.

The buyout comes three years after Gardman underwent a balance sheet restructuring and substantial debt reduction when TPG, Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs acquired the company from Equistone in 2012.

Rutland will post a ‘significant cash investment' in the business as part of the deal, which sees management investing alongside the new owners.

The Gardman deal is the second investment made from Rutland Fund III, a £263m vehicle that closed in December 2014.

Previous funding
Equistone (then Barclays Private Equity) backed an MBO of Gardman in 2007, investing £28m alongside a senior debt package provided by Barclays and Lloyds TSB Capital Markets in a deal with a total value of £85m.

Gardman was passed on to TPG, Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs as part of a restructuring in 2012.

Company
Rutland is a Peterborough-based supplier of wild bird care products, tooling, lighting and gardening sundries to the gardening market, focusing mainly on independent garden centres.

Founded in 1992, Gardman had UK revenues of £70m last year.

People
Rutland's Ben Slatter led the deal with Paul Cartwright, Tristan Craddock, Matthew Hamilton‐Allen and Jason Birt. Jonathan Halford is the CEO of Gardman.

Advisers
Equity - Taylor Wessing, Nick Hazell, Ed Waldron, Martin Yells (Legal); PwC, Geoff Eversfield, James Tubby (Financial due diligence) Andrew Smith, Ben Smith (Tax).
Vendor - EY, John Houlden, James Raine (Financial due diligence, tax); Pragma, Patrick Woodall, Agnes Pusca (Commercial due diligence); Intuitus, Ian Mackay (IT Due Diligence).
Company - Catalyst Corporate Finance, Steve Currie, Simon Peacock, Rob Young (Corporate finance); Eversheds, James Trevis (Legal).
Debt - BLP (Legal).