Gresham reaps 4x in sale of ICR to Graphite

Financial details of the deal are undisclosed, though Gresham is believed to be making a 4x return after less than three years at the helm.

Graphite invested from Graphite Capital Partners VIII. It is the second investment from the £500m fund following the backing of homecare provider City & County Healthcare Group in December 2013.

ICR was initially formed by Gresham in 2011 as part of a buy-and-build strategy for Walker Technical Resources, a composite repair services company it acquired in a secondary buyout from Maven Capital Partners.

Graphite intends to continue with the buy-and-build strategy – its plans for ICR include UK onshore expansion, new product development and international growth. The new GP stated it was attracted by the pace of ICR's development and its position in attractive markets.

In 2013 Graphite sold Dominion Gas, an Aberdeen-based oilfield services company for around £100m. The previous year it sold NES Global Talent, a provider of engineers to the oil & gas industry for £234m, making a 4.7x return.

Gresham's recent exits include the sale of UK shoe manufacturer Hotter Shoes to Electra Partners in a deal believed to be in the region of £200m. The secondary buyout was thought to have generated a 3.5x return.

It is also currently in the process of selling property-related insurance claims service LAS Claims Management to LSE-listed The Innovation Group in a £35m deal. The LAS sale follows an initial investment of £12.3m.

Debt
Debt funding for the deal was provided by HSBC and RBS.

Company
Headquartered in Aberdeen, ICR provides integrity services for the international oil & gas sector. It employs more than 170 employees across its international operations and generates a turnover of more than £30m. Its Middle East operations are run from Dubai.

People
Mike Innes, Simon May, Mudassir Khan and Andy Gray led the deal for Graphite. Ian Wolstenholme, a partner at Gresham, led the firm's initial deal and exit. Willie Rennie is CEO of ICR.

Advisers
Equity – Dundas & Wilson, Douglas Crawford, Helen Machin, Suzanne Malcolm (Legal); Johnston Carmichael, Graham Alexander, Jacqui Taylor (Corporate finance); Dow Schofield Watts, Mark Watts, Ed Brentnall, Dave Graham (Financial due diligence); Calash, David Wilson (Commercial due diligence); Arthur J Gallagher, George Minoprio (Insurance due diligence); Golder Associates, Dale Haigh (Environmental due diligence); Intuitus, Jonathan Cohen (IT due diligence).
Vendor – Blackwood Partners (Legal); Simmons (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
• Industrials
• Exits
• United Kingdom
• Graphite Capital
• Gresham Private Equity
• Secondary buyout