Panoramic invests £1.8m in Andante Travels

Incoming Andante CEO Ian Finlay also invested in the transaction. Andante's founder and director, Dr Annabel Lawson, will continue to sit on the board as a consultant.

The capital will be used to expand Andante's overseas market, develop its products and support the organic and acquisitive growth of the company.

The investment is the fifth by PECF I, which held its final close in June 2010 at £34m, exceeding its target by £1.5m. The fund typically makes investments between £500,000-2m in UK SMEs.

The fund's previous transactions include a £1m expansion deal with Dog Digital and a £1.25m deal with Solflex (already exited). Panoramic reaped a 62% IRR from Solflex, which it exited in a trade sale for more than £30m just 16 months after investment.

Company
Andante Travels was founded in 1985 in Wiltshire and currently employs 18 staff. The company is a specialist travel operator that offers tours and holidays to archaeological and ancient sites in 32 countries with varying levels of guidance. In 2012, Andante provided 88 tours to 1,700 customers. Its revenues for the year stood at slightly less than £4m.

People
Ian Finlay, Panoramic's co-investor, will become Andante's CEO. The current director of the company is Dr Annabel Lawson, who will continue as a consultant after Finlay's arrival.

Martin Leppard, who currently sits on a number of company boards within the travel and leisure sector, will also join the board as a chairman.

David Wilson, an investment partner at Panoramic, acted as a representative for the firm.

Advisers
Equity – James Cowper, Stewart Lambert (Corporate finance); HMT, Andrew Thomson (Financial due diligence); Vialex, Keith Anderson, Keith Dinsmore (Legal).
Management – Lamport Bassitt, Sean Kelly (Legal).
Company – Trethowans, Nick Gent (Legal).

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