ECI buys Tusker from Smedvig

The deal saw ECI take over the Smedvig's 93% stake in the company, which it had amassed since 2001. Management will remain unchanged.

ECI's previous experience with car services investments includes CarTrawler – an Irish online car rental service, which the GP sold to BC Partners in 2014 for an estimated £300–380m. Reaping 6x its initial investment on the exit, the sale was the GP's largest exit, in terms of value, at the time.

Previous funding
Smedvig Capital first invested in Tusker in September 2001, taking a minority stake as part of an equity syndicate that also included Mitiska Net Fund, North Bridge Venture Partners and SI Venture.

In February 2006, Smedvig acquired the shares of the three other investors, bringing its own stake from 49% to 93%.

Company
Tusker is an online vehicle leasing company, based in Watford, specialising in leasing cars through salary sacrifice schemes.

The company generated £100m in revenue last year and currently manages 13,000 vehicles, which it expects to increase by 30% by the end of 2015.

People
Paul McCreadie is a partner at ECI and Rob Toms is the managing director of Smedvig. David Hosking is the CEO of Tusker.

Richard Prosser, a former non-executive director at ex-ECI portfolio company CarTrawler, has joined the company's board of directors as chairman.

Advisors
Equity – DC Advisory (Corporate finance).

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Buyouts
• Industrials
• Smedvig Capital
• ECI Partners
• DC Advisory Partners
• Secondary buyout