Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services (United Kingdom) - Jan 2008

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01 January 2008

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Octopus Investments has backed the £9.75m management buyout of Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services, investing £4.8m for a minority stake in the company. Barclays Bank has supplied invoice discounting and term loan facilities to support the transaction, which provides an exit for the firm’s existing private shareholders. Hurst Morrison Thompson operated a competitive process on behalf of the management team, who eventually chose Octopus as buyout partners primarily due to the good relationship they were able to generate. The investor was impressed by the management, who have remained with the company for over ten years, seeing it through the difficult times which affected the industry following September 11th and more than doubling the size of the business in the past four years. Octopus also cited the quality of service Tristar offers, with 99% of pick-ups occurring on time – a consistency which sets it apart from its competitors. The new owners are expecting the core business to continue its rapid organic growth, with the travel sector as whole expanding above the rate of GDP. They will also look to grow the company’s international presence, focusing on an expansion of the newly-launched US office, which is situated on the East Coast. The deal completed on 9 January 2008.

Company

Tristar provides a chauffeuring service to both airline and corporate customers, carrying more than 400,000 passengers for 400 clients in 2007. The business currently operates in 44 countries worldwide, with a blue-chip customer base that includes Virgin, Emirates, BP, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Tristar, which was founded in 1973, is based in West Drayton, near Heathrow Airport and posted revenues of £34m to May 2007, with turnover growing at a rate of 20% year-on-year.

People

Andrew Cavaghan, Paddy Woods-Ballard and Purvi Sapre worked on the transaction for Octopus, with Cavaghan joining the Tristar board. Dean de Beer is the CEO of the company.

Advisers

Company - Hurst Morrison Thompson, Andrew Thomson (Corporate Finance)Company - Pitmans , John Hutchinson, Stephanie Perry (Legal)Debt - Osborne Clarke, Chris Marrable, Hugh Jones (Legal)Equity - Nabarro, Glyn Taylor, Ted Dewhurst (Legal)Equity - Tenon Corporate Finance, Nick Williams, Peter Van (Financial Due Diligence)Equity - Wragge & Co, Neil Pearson (Legal)Vendor - Livingstone Partners, Christopher Jones, Tim Lyle (Corporate Finance)Vendor - Osborne Clarke, Adrian Bott, Matthew Bodfield (Legal)