Huntress Group (United Kingdom) - Nov 2007

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01 November 2007

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Nomura Private Equity, the private equity subsidiary of Asian investment group Nomura, has backed the secondary management buyout of recruitment specialist Huntress Group, taking a minority stake in the company, with Barclays supplying a senior only debt package. The value of the deal was not disclosed, although it is rumoured to value the company at around £40m. The investors intend to grow the business organically, particularly through continued expansion both nationally and internationally. The sale was handled by Deloitte, who operated a limited auction process that exclusively targeted private equity firms.

Exit deal

The deal provides an exit for Graphite Capital, which has generated a return of 5.6x the money committed and an IRR of 38.5% over its seven-year investment. Graphite initially backed the start-up of the company in June 2000, contributing approximately £2m and taking a significant minority stake in the business. Since this point Huntress has expanded substantially, achieving compound annual revenue growth of 40% in the past five years, with sales expected to reach £78m in 2007. Graphite realised a partial return on its investment in 2005 through a refinancing in association with Barclays Leverage Finance. During the course of Graphite’s involvement with the company there has been a reallocation of equity to the management.

Company

London-based Huntress is a recruitment company that provides both permanent and temporary staff in three sectors, clerical, accountancy and finance, and technology, which together account for a UK market worth around £8.8bn. Since its inception, the company has rolled out its business model to 17 offices and currently employs more than 300 staff.

People

Andrew Healey led the investment for Nomura, with CEO and co-founder of Huntress Gary Laurence representing the company. Mike Tilbury, Simon Ffitch and Perry Chapman handled the exit for Graphite

Advisers

Company - Deloitte, Bryon Griffin, Mark Taylor (Corporate Finance)Company - Olswang, Adam Crossley, Matthew Wentworth, Natasha Kaye, Stephen Rosen (Legal)Equity - Armstrong, Tom Raymond (Commercial Due Diligence)Equity - Hammonds, James McKay, Robert Bray (Legal)Equity - KPMG, Alison Legg (Financial Due Diligence)Purchaser - Deloitte, David Scott (Financial Due Diligence)Purchaser - KPMG, Marcus Archer (Corporate Finance)Purchaser - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Euan Cameron (Commercial Due Diligence)Purchaser - Travers Smith, David Innes, Edmund Reed, Matthew Ayre, Simon Skinner (Legal)