LDC sells kidsunlimited for £45m

The kidsunlimited acquisition brings the number of centres owned by Bright Horizons in the UK to 203, with the capacity to care for around 15,500 children.

LDC bought a significant minority stake in kidsunlimited from Isis Equity Partners in 2008, in a deal worth £45m. The management team held the balance of the shares following an increase in its equity holding. Debt was provided by Barclays bank and the auction process was run by Deloitte.

The exit yielded a return of 4.75x and an IRR of 26% for Isis at the time. The GP first backed kidsunlimited in a £12m deal in 2001, buying a 41% stake. In 2002, Isis made a further investment to become the majority shareholder.

Company
Founded in 1983 and based in Cheshire, kidsunlimited is a nursery care provider. The company operates 64 nurseries, including workplace nurseries for employers such as Cambridge University Hospitals, WHSmith and the University of Oxford.

Under LDC's ownership, kidsunlimited opened 15 new sites and grew revenues by 40% to reach £41.4m.

People
Catherine Houghton led the deal for LDC.

Advisers
Vendor – DWF, Jonathan Robinson (Legal); Deloitte, Jodi Birkett (Financial due diligence, tax).

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• Exits
• United Kingdom
• LDC
• Deloitte
• Trade sale