HIG offloads Engine to Lake Capital for £100m

Following the transaction, Engine will form a partnership with existing Lake investments, ORC International, a market research business, and later with Trailer Park, an entertainment and content marketing agency.

The deal highlights the continued shift of European private equity-backed assets into the portfolios of US counterparts. Similar recent deals include Graphite Capital's sale of Alexander Mann Solutions to New York-based New Mountain Capital. Click here to read our analysis on this trend.

Previous investment
HIG invested £32.5m into Engine in October 2010 as part of a £62.5m round for the company, with plans to expand the group into the US, Brazil and China. HIG's stake was understood to be less than 40%.

Company
Engine comprises 13 agencies, which provide communication, advertising, lobbying and marketing services to brands including Tesco, Coca-Cola and Lloyds Banking Group. MHP is the group's financial services PR division and counts clients including General Atlantic and Coller Capital.

Engine recently lost longstanding client BMW. However, the business has been reportedly replaced by energy company E.ON.

People
Peter Scott is CEO of Engine Group, while Debbie Klein is CEO of Engine UK. Terry Graunke is chairman of Lake Capital.

Advisers
Company – Ingenious Corporate Finance (Corporate finance).

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