Inflexion reaps 2.8x on £42m Phlexglobal sale to BDC

Ellie Pullen
14 July 2014

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Inflexion Private Equity has sold Phlexglobal to Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) for ТЃ42m, generating a 2.8x return on its original investment.

BDC plans on expanding the company internationally; under Inflexion's ownership, the company opened a US office to serve the North American market.

The company also brought in a new CEO and CTO as the founder began to offload responsibility of the business with Inflexion's support.

Inflexion acquired Phlexglobal in March 2011, investing in the business via its £165m Inflexion 2006 Buyout Fund, according to unquote" data.

Debt
A senior debt package and working capital facilities have been provided by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

Company
Founded in 1997, Phlexglobal is headquartered in Amersham with an additional office in Philadelphia in the US. The company develops electronic trial master file (TMF) document management software.

TMFs are needed in the pharmaceutical industry in order to comply with government regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical clinical trials.

Its customer base comprises the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical research organisation and medical device industries. Clients include Pfizer, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and Bayer.

Phlexglobal generated £15.3m in revenues and a £4.5m EBITDA in 2013. It employs 230 staff.

People
Stella Donoghue is the CEO of Phlexglobal. Inflexion partner Richard Swann and assistant director Edward Fraser sat on the company's board of directors. Alan Payne is a partner at BDC.

Advisers
Equity – DC Advisory (Corporate finance); Travers Smith (Legal); EY (Financial due diligence).
Vendor – BDO (Corporate finance); Gateley (Legal).