Fisher Holdings (United Kingdom) - Dec 2007

unquote
01 December 2007

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Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance has acquired linen textile services business Fisher Holdings from Close Brothers Private Equity in a £40m secondary buyout deal. BOSIF invested a combined debt and equity package to take a 20% stake in the newco in which management will hold the balance. Deloitte ran an auction process to facilitate the transaction.

Exit deal

The divestment of Fishers generated a return of 2.9x on CBPE’s original investment and an IRR of 37% over its three-and-a-half year holding period. During the investment period, Fishers has grown profits considerably and increased its staff numbers from 600 to 700. It has also successfully expanded its presence into the North East of England. CBPE backed the £23m management buyout of Fishers from the Fishers family in 2004 (19 April 2004, page 20). CBPE invested £9m in the deal which was supported by debt provided by Bank of Scotland.

Company

Cupar-based Fishers is Scotland’s longest established textile services company. It offers services in linen rental, work wear hire including chef’s wear, washroom hygiene services and laundry services. Its clients include hotels, food producing concerns, small independent hospitality premises and industrial customers in the electronics and pharmaceutical industries. Fishers was founded in 1900 and employs 700 staff. It has a turnover of more than £25m.

People

John Duncan, Steven Gray, Angus Allan, Shona McNeill, Rob Scholes and Graham Arnold structured and led the deal for BOSIF. Sean Dinnen and John Fisher led the exit for CBPE.

Advisers

Purchaser - Dundas & Wilson, David Morton, Douglas Crawford (Legal)Purchaser - KPMG, Bruce Walker (Financial Due Diligence)Vendor - Deloitte, Cahal Dowds, Craig Campbell (Corporate Finance)Vendor - Dickson Minto, Ewan Gilchrist (Legal)

Sourced from: UK & Ireland unquote" 359 (Dec 2007)