Charterhouse fully exits Card Factory
Charterhouse Capital Partners has sold its remaining shares in listed portfolio company Card Factory, a UK-based card retailer, to various institutional investors.
The divestment consists of 60.6 million shares, equivalent to around an 18% stake in the company.
Charterhouse has reaped 5.25x money from Card Factory, unquote" understands.
At a valuation of 301 pence apiece – the share price at the time of publication – the sale would represent proceeds of around £180m for the GP’s IX LP No.1, IX LP No.2 and IX Co-investment LP vehicles.
Charterhouse declined to comment on the transaction.
Card Factory listed on London's main market in May 2014, with shares priced at 225 pence each, giving the business a market cap of £766.6m. Shares fell by 10% the day after the company's flotation. However, the share price has since increased to give the business a market cap of more than £1bn, equivalent to 12.6x EBITDA.
In December 2014, Charterhouse sold a further 40 million shares in Card Factory –worth £106m – to Invesco. The following month, it sold a total of 40 million shares to Invesco and Artemis Investment Managers.
Under Charterhouse’s tenure, the business has opened 280 new stores, developed its own printing facilities, opened a new corporate headquarters and acquired two warehouses. It also acquired Getting Personal from Livingbridge (then Isis Equity Partners) in 2011, with Charterhouse providing fresh capital to finance the deal.
Previous funding
Charterhouse supported the £350m management buyout of Card Factory in April 2010, with Lloyds TSB providing senior debt to finance the acquisition.
Company
Founded in 1997 and based in Wakefield, Card Factory designs and supplies greeting cards, gifts, novelty items and giftwrap across the UK. The majority of cards are sold for less than £1.
The business has 764 stores alongside an online offering. In the financial year ending in January 2015, the business generated £353.3m in sales and EBITDA of £88.2m – an increase of 8.1% and 9.6% respectively on 2014 figures.
People
Graeme Coulthard is a partner at Charterhouse. Richard Hayes is CEO of Card Factory.
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