Charterhouse sells Deb to SC Johnson

Ellie Pullen
09 February 2015

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Charterhouse Capital Partners is to sell its stake in Deb Group, a UK producer of hand sanitisers and other hygiene products, to SC Johnson.

The deal is expected to close in the next couple of months.

SC Johnson is a US producer of household cleaning products including Duck, Pledge, Mr Muscle and Windex.

Under Charterhouse's ownership, Deb has opened a new manufacturing and warehousing facility in Australia, established a commercial presence in South-east Asia, launched its Deb Med hand hygiene business in north America and acquired the company Stoko Professional Skin Care, the latter of which took place last year.

While the sale price has not been disclosed, Reuters reported last year that Goldman Sachs had been hired to manage the sale process for Deb and that the deal could be worth up to £650m.

Charterhouse acquired Deb in March 2010 for £325m. It bought the company from Equistone Partners Europe (then Barclays Private Equity), which made a 5.7x return on its original £32m investment.

Equistone had acquired a 55% stake in the business in March 2004 when it backed the £135m management buyout of Deb.

Company
Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Denby in Derbyshire, Deb is a producer of skincare and hygiene products for the workplace.

Products include sunscreen, hand sanitisers, body lotion and specialist wipes for removing paints, inks and adhesives.

The group operates 21 subsidiaries across 16 countries. Its products are sold in 100 countries.

According to Charterhouse, Deb's workforce has increased by 20% and its turnover has doubled while under the GP's ownership.

People
Bryan Anderson is the CEO of Deb. Frank van den Bosch is a partner at Charterhouse.

Advisers
Acquirer - Baird, David Silver, Nick Pavlidis, Bill Suddath (Corporate finance); BDT & Company, Robbie Robinson, Amy Ennesser (Corporate finance).