Abel and Cole (United Kingdom) - Nov 2007

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01 November 2007

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Phoenix Equity Partners has invested to finance the management buyout of organic food supplier Abel & Cole. The value of the deal was not disclosed, although press reports estimate it had an enterprise value of between £30-40m. Phoenix was aware of Abel & Cole for sometime through a prior relationship with Abel & Cole’s managing director. This enabled it to effectively pre-empt a formal auction process. Phoenix beat competition from other interested bidder European Capital. Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets provided a debt package to support the transaction, the details of which were not disclosed. Phoenix’s investment involved significant provision for development capital to help grow the business going forward. The new resource will be used to build up the company’s infrastructure through increasing the number of distribution centres. The deal represents Phoenix’s sixth investment from its £375m fund raised in April 2006.

Company

Wimbledon-based Abel & Cole was founded in 1988. It delivers a range of organic produce including meat, fish, dairy products and groceries to more than 40,000 homes in London, Manchester, Brighton and the Midlands and is renowned for its organic and ethical credentials. Abel & Cole has a turnover of £28m and employs 320 staff.

People

David Burns and Andrew Deakin led the deal for Phoenix. Keith Abel is the founder of the business. Duncan Gibson is Abel and Cole’s managing director. Chris Birt led the deal for Lloyds TSB.

Advisers

Debt - DLA, John Cutler, Jolyon Ellwood-Russell (Legal)Equity - Ernst & Young, Mike McKerr (Financial Due Diligence)Equity - KPMG, Richard Krajewski (Corporate Finance)Equity - Pragma, Roy Palmer (Commercial Due Diligence)Equity - Travers Smith, Edmund Reed, James Renahan , Mark Ellis, Philip Sanderson, Russell Warren (Legal)Management - Browne Jacobson, Nigel Blackwell (Legal)Management - Clearwater Corporate Finance, Marc Gillespie (Corporate Finance)Vendor - Lovells, Tom Whelan (Legal)Vendor - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Neil Sutton (Corporate Finance)