7city Group Ltd (United Kingdom) - Nov 2007

unquote
01 November 2007

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

Gresham Private Equity has acquired financial training company 7city Group Ltd (7city) for an undisclosed sum in a management buyout deal. The enterprise value of 7city was understood to be less than £30m, with Gresham investing mainly equity alongside a small debt package provided by Royal Bank of Scotland. Gresham owns a majority stake in the company alongside management which takes a substantial minority shareholding. The deal represents an exit for four of 7city’s founders, while three founders have rolled over into the newco. Gresham was introduced to the deal by Matlin Associates which conducted an auction process. Gresham believes the rapport it developed with management and its track record of growing businesses in the financial services sector helped it win the deal, which took about two months to complete from exclusivity.

Company

Founded in 2000, 7city is a global training provider primarily serving leading financial institutions. The company delivers courses to more than 20,000 delegates each year both in the classroom and through distance learning solutions. 7city’s two core offerings are exam training for professional qualifications such as the SII, ACCA, CFA and FINRA and bespoke financial product and professional development courses such as eight-week graduate programmes. 7city employees more than 110 staff based at its training centres in London and New York. A third centre is scheduled to open in Singapore in 2008. Gresham was attracted to the company due to its record of fast growth and high quality service offering through an advanced IT platform. 7city had sales of £11.2m in 2006 with forecast turnover for 2007 of £17m+. New online product offerings and a scaling up of the company’s New York office as well as the opening of the Singapore office are expected to drive additional growth at the company.

People

Christian Bruning, Mike Henebery and Simon Hemley led the deal for Gresham. Richard Atkins as executive chairman, and Paul Marson-Smith and James Barbour-Smith of Gresham, joined the board at completion. Paul Shaw is 7city’s CEO.

Advisers

Equity - Armstrong Transaction Services, Robin Illingworth (Commercial Due Diligence)Equity - BDO Stoy Hayward , Alex White, Jo Masters (Corporate Finance)Equity - Deloitte, Ben Swarbrick, James Slipper, Mark Gibbon (Financial Due Diligence)Equity - Deloitte, Patrick Waldron, Steve Marsh (Tax)Equity - Giles Insurance Brokers, Vicky Railton (Insurance Due Diligence)Equity - Olswang, Fabrizio Carpanini, Kacey Harrison, Mark Baynes, Sarah Bolton (Legal)Equity - Strategy Partners, Rory Staunton (Other Due Diligence)Equity - The Quinn Partnership, Andrew Brown, Paul Quinn (Other Due Diligence)Management - DLA Piper, Andrew Holt, Chris Baird, Dean O’Connell, Sean Scanlon (Legal)Vendor - Matlin Associates, Miguel Lorrio, Steve Matlin (Corporate Finance)