Equistone sells A-Plan to HgCapital

Ellie Pullen
15 December 2014

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Equistone Partners Europe has sold its majority shareholding in A-Plan, a UK insurance broker, in a secondary buyout to HgCapital after a six-year holding period.

Equistone is understood to have made 2.8x money from the sale.

Under Equistone's management, the company's turnover has almost doubled while its work force has more than doubled. The company also opened 19 new branches.

According to reports, HgCapital fended off fellow private equity firms to win the asset, including Vitruvian Partners, which was apparently in the running to buy A-Plan.

Equistone hired Evercore to oversee the sale, which was set to be worth around £300m, according to earlier reports.

Previous investment
Equistone acquired a majority stake in A-Plan in May 2008, taking a 68% shareholding while management took the balance. Fortis Bank provided a debt package totalling £60m for the management buyout, according to unquote" data.

At the time of Equistone's acquisition, A-Plan employed 380 staff and generated £44m in revenues.

Company
Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Oxford, A-Plan is a provider of insurance products to policy holders from several different types of insurer, including SME commercial, motor and home, and high-net-worth.

A-Plan currently operates 73 branches across the UK and claims to serve 580,000 policy holders.

The company employs 970 staff and generated £61.5m in turnover for the year ending February 2014, as well as an EBITDA of £22.7m. It expects to generate £73m for the year ending February 2015.

People
Carl Shuker is the CEO of A-Plan. Andrew Land is a partner at HgCapital. Andrew Backen is a partner at Equistone.

Advisers
Equity – KPMG Corporate Finance (M&A); Ashcombe Advisers (M&A); IMAS (Debt); Linklaters (Legal); OC&C (Commercial due diligence); Deloitte (Financial due diligence).
Management - Libery Corporate Finance (Corporate finance); Travers Smith, Chris Hale, Adam Orr, Matthew Kichenside, Victoria Bramall, Adam Martin (Legal, tax).
Vendor - Clifford Chance (Legal).