Alpha Plus (United Kingdom) - Dec 2007

unquote
01 December 2007

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

The sale of Alpha Plus Holdings Ltd has yielded returns of 5.5x for Sovereign Capital equivalent to an IRR of 53% on Sovereign’s five-year holding period. Independent schools group Alpha has been acquired by Delancey, a specialist investment adviser for an undisclosed sum believed to be in the region of £113m. Sovereign appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to run an auction process to facilitate the exit. Alpha’s portfolio includes The Wetherby Preparatory School, Pembridge Hall and Davies Laing & Dick College in London. Sovereign owned a majority stake in Alpha and had already realised some value from the deal through a £37m recapitalisation with the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2006 (8 May 2006, page 26). Kevin Whittle and Jose Rodriguez led the exit for Sovereign. Previous funding Sovereign acquired Davies Laing & Dick in a £26m institutional buyout in 2002 (15 July 2002, page 25). At that time, the group comprised 11 schools. In December 2004, Sovereign completed a follow on acquisition adding pre-preparatory schools business Cliff and Silverwood Schools to the group and renaming it Alpha Plus Group (10 January 2005, page 14). At the time of the exit, Sovereign had built one of the largest groups of independent schools in the UK – with its 17 schools and two further in development, Alpha has approximately 2,800 pupils, representing an increase of 44% from the original deal in 2002. In addition to the acquisition, Alpha grew from the strengthening of its management team with Sovereign bringing in a new CEO, managing director and finance director during its five year involvement. The value of the business was also enhanced by significant investment to build new facilities and enhance existing ones.

Advisers

Company - Marriott Harrison, Duncan Innes (Legal)Equity - Macfarlanes, Ian Martin (Legal)Equity - PricewaterhouseCoopers, (Commercial Due Diligence)Purchaser - Olswang Solicitors, Tina Cowen (Legal)