Sovereign acquires Willows

Barclays provided debt to support the transaction. Equity was drawn from Sovereign Capital IV Limited Partnership, which closed on its £395m hard-cap in August.

The investment is Sovereign's first foray into the veterinary services market since the flotation of veterinary services consolidator CVS Group in 2007; an investment that saw the GP reap an 11.9x return.

Company
Headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands, and founded in 1992, Willows is a veterinary practice specialising in the care of small animals. The company provides specialist referral services in orthopaedics, ophthalmology, neurology, soft tissue surgery, internal medicine and oncology.

People
Neil Cox is a director at Sovereign. Lynne Hill, formerly CEO of Langford Veterinary Services, has been appointed CEO of Willows. Nuffield Health CEO David Mobbs has also been appointed as chairman of the company.

Founders Malcolm McKee and Peter Renwick, who have not been active in the day-to-day running of the hospital in recent years, will continue as non-executive directors at Willows.

Advisers
Equity – Spectrum Corporate Finance, Simon Davies, Clive Hatchard, Ian Milne (Debt advisory); Hazlewoods, David Main, Richard Dade, Andy Brookes, Tom Woodcock (Financial due diligence); Mansfield Advisors, Victor Chua, Tristan Martin (Commercial due diligence); Pinsent Masons, Gregg Davison, James Fitzgibbon, Andy Phillips, Pippa Whitmore (Legal); Marsh, Leo Flindall, Peter Vernon (Insurance due diligence).
Vendor – Baker Tilly, Ian Latham, Helen Brocklebank (Corporate finance); EGL, Stephen Gilmore (Legal).
Debt – CMS Cameron McKenna, Peter Crichton (Legal).
Management – Osborne Clark, Paul Cooper, Karen Pettigrew (Legal).

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Sovereign Capital
• United Kingdom